Environmental lawyer who won a judgment against Chevron lost everything

"I was never ruined but twice in my life: once, when I lost a lawsuit, and once when I won one."—Voltaire

Where does the article say "Mr. Gitter was with Chevron long before the trial, he took money from them before appointment?" Given the highly misleading nature of the article you just linked, I would be very skeptical of trusting similar sources. There is a lot of "journalism" on this topic that takes tremendous liberties, relying on the fact that (1) most people don't understand how court proceedings or the law work; and (2) it's easy to hate Chevron.

For example, your article asserts that the RICO judgment against Donzinger has been "discredited." But a tribunal at the Hague, and also courts in Brazil, have found that the Ecuador judgment was procured by fraud. The article asserts that "Kaplan’s findings have been rejected in whole or in part in five different unanimous decisions by appellate courts in Canada and Ecuador, including the entire Supreme Courts of both countries." But when you actually look into it, the article seems to be relying on an early jurisdictional ruling by the Canadian Supreme Court that allowed an enforcement action to go forward: https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/the-plot-to-murde.... But the Canadian Supreme Court ultimately rejected enforcement of the Ecuadoran judgment in Canada: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkrauss/2019/04/05/the-su....

The article you linked came out before the Canadian decision, so I can't fault it for not taking that into account. However, what's deeply misleading was suggesting that the 2015 Canadian decision "discredited" the U.S. RICO judgment. The Canadian courts did not grapple with whether the Ecuadorean judgment was procured by fraud. They were dealing with the very different issue of whether the judgment -- even if it was legitimate -- could be enforced against Chevron's Canadian entity, which is an entirely different company. It was misleading to suggest that the Canadian decision allowing the enforcement proceeding to go forward somehow "discredited" the U.S. RICO judgment.

The PDF you linked was written by Judge Kaplan, the one detailed in this article.

"Skip the narrative and go straight to".. the opinion of a single judge whom evidence suggests is biased in favor of Chevron.

No. Donziger won a lawsuit in Ecuador. There is some evidence that the win was the result, in part, of bribery and fraud, but that's a matter for the Ecuadorian courts, and they're apparently fine with it. So he's not in trouble for that.

However, he later started suing in various foreign courts for enforcement of that judgement, and lawsuits filed in the US are the business of US courts, and lawsuits to enforce judgements obtained via fraud, collusion, and bribery are tained. So if Donziger knew the judgement was obtained corruptly (and there's some very inconvenient footage of Donziger admitting as much to a documentary film crew...), then he's been a very naughty boy, and it's well within the right of a court to request he provide more information about what exactly he did. And the way courts enforce compliance with these requests is, yes, fines and imprisonment.

There's nothing all that weird about this. It's unfortunate because the people Donziger represented are very sympathetic, and have clearly been deeply wronged. Nonetheless, you're really not supposed lie and cheat to obtain justice for your clients.

> "Skip the narrative and go straight to".. the opinion of a single judge whom evidence suggests is biased in favor of Chevron.

There is zero evidence suggesting he is "biased in favor of Chevron." Donzinger's self-serving assertions are not evidence. Donzinger has repeatedly petitioned the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the appellate court that oversees the trial court here, to have the judge recused. The Second Circuit has repeatedly rejected those requests. And the Second Circuit, through a panel of three judges, affirmed the order I linked to: https://fcpablog.com/2016/08/11/second-circuit-upholds-rico-...