Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson and actress and environmentalist Susan Sarandon called on the federal government and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to intervene in the case against attorney Steven Donziger who has been locked in a legal battle with Chevron for nearly three decades and has been under house arrest for almost two years.
Speaking to Hill.TV’s “Rising” host Krystal Ball, Williamson accused Chevron of “trying to destroy Steven Donziger.”
“The money that they have spent already trying to destroy Steven Donziger is much more money than it would have cost them to just clean up that area of the Amazon,” Williamson said.
In 1993, Donziger was part of a legal team that filed a class action lawsuit against Texaco on behalf of over 30,000 Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous people who were affected by the contamination from the company’s oil drilling. Chevron became involved after it bought Texaco in 2001, The Intercept reported.
Donziger has been under house arrest and made to wear an ankle monitor since 2019 for a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court after he refused to turn over his laptop and cellphone, citing client confidentiality, during a racketeering case brought against him by Chevron. If convicted, he faces up to six months in prison.
“It’s unprecedented that … that this kind of a sentence happens for just not turning over your computer and your phone — that they have spun it into this whole contempt of court thing,” Sarandon said. “It was just a Chevron showcase of their strength, and it didn’t even seem like a trial. I mean, it was pretty shocking to see how it was conducted under those circumstances.”
“What we need is from [U.S. Attorney General] Merrick Garland to get involved. What we need is for people to call the attorney general’s office to call their reps,” Williamson said.
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