Currently — May 9th, 2022

What you need to know, currently.

If you Google Steven Donziger, the first result is an ad for The Amazon Post, a website where Chevron shares its views on the lawsuit Donziger brought against them, which ended in a judge ordering Chevron to pay $9 billion in compensation for polluting the Lago Agrio region of the Amazon.

“Not What He Claims To Be - Set the Record Straight,” the headline reads, accusing Donziger of being an “Adjudicated Racketeer.” Donziger represented 30,000 farmers and Indigenous Ecuadorians in the class action lawsuit and Chevron has stated outright since then that their aim is to demonize him and destroy his livelihood.

Donziger was placed under house arrest in 2019 after refusing to turn over his computer and phone to Chevron’s forensics’ team, found guilty of contempt of court, and sentenced to six months in jail in 2021. He was released from house arrest in April of 2022 and is now fighting to have his legal license reinstated.

“[This] should be nothing short of terrifying for any activist challenging corporate power and the oil industry in the U.S.,” Paul Paz y Miño, the associate director of Amazon Watch, told The Intercept. “[Chevron has] made it clear there’s no amount of money that’s too much to spend on this case. They will stop at nothing.”