With just four days remaining in his presidency, calls are intensifying for President Joe Biden to issue a pardon for Steven Donziger, a U.S. human rights attorney whose legal battles against Chevron have garnered widespread attention and sparked debate over corporate influence in the legal system.
Donziger gained prominence for his role in securing a historic multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron for the company’s pollution of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.
The judgment, awarded in 2013, held the oil giant accountable for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste onto the ancestral lands of Indigenous communities.
However, instead of accepting the ruling, Chevron launched an extensive legal and public campaign against Donziger, which has included an illegal criminal prosecution and the unjust revocation of his legal credentials.
Donziger was the first person in U.S. history to be prosecuted and jailed by a private corporation, a distinction that has raised alarm among civil rights advocates, environmentalists, and legal experts.
His case has been widely regarded as an example of corporate overreach, with Chevron reportedly deploying dozens of law firms and 2000 lawyers in an attempt to discredit him and intimidate other environmental advocates.
“Steven Donziger’s case is a clear violation of the principles of justice and democracy,” said Lisa McCormick, the New Jersey Democrat who challenged US Senator Bob Menendez in the 2018 primary. “By pardoning Steven Donziger, President Biden has an opportunity to restore integrity to our legal system, and send a powerful message about the need for accountability in corporate conduct.”
In 2021, after nearly three years of house arrest and detention, Donziger was convicted of contempt of court for refusing to turn over confidential client materials in violation of an order issued by a federal judge. The judgment stemmed from his legal efforts to aid Indigenous communities in Ecuador, which Donziger contends was an unjust and politically motivated decision.
In the face of these legal challenges, Donziger has become a symbol of resistance to corporate impunity, attracting support from a broad coalition of human rights organizations, environmental groups, and political leaders.
In December 2024, a letter urging President Biden to pardon Donziger was signed by 34 members of Congress, including Senators Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamie Raskin, Jim McGovern, and Rashida Tlaib. The letter calls for a pardon on the grounds that Donziger’s actions were motivated by a desire to address the climate crisis and uphold the rule of law.
Further reinforcing the push for a pardon, 16 prominent civil society organizations sent a letter this week, including Defending Rights and Dissent, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“President Biden has one last chance to make a powerful statement on justice and the rule of law,” said James Devine, a New Jersey-based political strategist. “If he fails to pardon Steven Donziger before leaving the White House, it will be yet another wasted opportunity to stand up against corporate overreach and protect the rights of those who fight for vulnerable communities, in a tenure marked by squandered possibility.”
These groups argue that Donziger’s prosecution is emblematic of the growing threats to free speech and the independence of the legal profession, with private corporations using legal and financial power to silence critics and activists.
“If President Biden fails to pardon Steven Donziger, it will be yet another catastrophic failure, an egregious lapse, and one that cements his administration’s reputation as the very definition of do-nothing Democrats,” said Devine.
With Biden’s time in office dwindling, advocates fear that the opportunity for a pardon may slip away.
They contend that Donziger’s work for the Amazon communities in Ecuador remains unfinished, and that a pardon would allow him to continue his advocacy without unjust obstacles looming.
During this extensive legal battle with Chevron, Donziger has faced multiple violations of his right to a fair trial. In the process, he was charged with contempt of court for refusing to hand his computer and other devices containing his privileged attorney-client material from the lawsuit against Chevron to the court.
Donziger said that he “refused to do so as a matter of protecting my clients’ legal rights and their lives, because doing so would put their lives in jeopardy”. The US Attorney declined to prosecute him on this contempt charge. Ordinarily, this would have ended the legal proceedings for this charge. Instead, the presiding judge in New York requested the case be continued and appointed a private law firm to prosecute Donziger in place of the government.
The maximum sentence for the contempt charge was 180 days. Yet, Donziger spent over four times this length deprived of his liberty—under house arrest in New York City, then in a prison in the state of Connecticut, and later in a halfway house in New York—for refusing to hand over his computer while he challenged the order and fought his contempt charge.
He was ultimately convicted of the contempt charge and was sentenced to 6 months in prison, of which he served 45 days, and also spent time in a halfway house. But despite having served this sentence, his case still continues year after year.
International human rights mechanisms, including the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, concluded that Donziger’s deprivation of liberty was arbitrary after identifying that this situation constituted legal harassment in the form of a SLAPP suit: Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation.
What this means is that the lawsuit by Chevron following Donziger’s discovery, and subsequent victory, in Ecuador is meant to force him into silence. This creates a chilling precedent for human rights defenders in the US and around the world, and Chevron denies this claim. Despite the intimidation, Donziger continues with his work, determined to get the reparations that the people he has defended all these years deserve.
As Biden prepares to leave the White House, the clock is ticking on the potential for Donziger’s pardon.
Whether Biden will take action before the end of his term remains uncertain, but the mounting pressure from lawmakers, civil society organizations, and concerned citizens highlights the enduring significance of Donziger’s case in the ongoing fight for human rights, environmental justice, and the rule of law.
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