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by RNCTX 1726 days ago
An apt comparison, considering Steven Donziger is in court again this week, after having basically endured a corporate-funded prosecution that has drawn on for almost three years, for the crime of winning a civil pollution suit against Chevron.

The children of every fed-level elected and appointed official in his jurisdiction and/or related to the case (house of reps member, both senators, judge, prosecutor) work for the law firm representing Chevron. No one forced any of these judges, politicians, and prosecutors to be complicit in a malicious/fraudulent prosecution. They chose complicity.
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asdff 1726 days ago
It happens in all forms of government everywhere, large city or small. Especially in southern california I find local city halls to be rife with corruption. The FBI has been probing Los Angeles city hall and has already arrested two former councilmen, Huizar was arrested while in office, for racketeering. In Huizars case hollywood couldn't have written a cheesier plot, it was literally cash in brown paper bags and hookers in vegas from developers. quid pro quo. That good old fashioned cronyism stuff has never left, because literally so many people are doing this stuff. Sanitation department. Water and Power. Building and Safety. LASD. Rife with open, overt corruption, and I honestly believe the press is scared to go after these agencies harder than they have with their union lawyers.
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atdrummond 1726 days ago
Where can I read more about this?
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RNCTX 1726 days ago
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/574921-former-...

https://theintercept.com/2021/09/29/steven-donziger-sentenci...

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BrianOnHN 1726 days ago
Why haven't humans designed a better ethics system for attorneys?
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RNCTX 1726 days ago
People like Jerry Nadler, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand cashing Chevron checks probably would probably argue that it is better... for them.
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robbedpeter 1726 days ago
It's been a problem since lawyers were invented. If you have a system of rules encoded in language subject to interpretation by fallible humans, you have a recipe for conflict and recrimination.

The problem these days seems to be the bloat and unnecessary complexity such that lawyers are now the only people who can play the game encoded by the rules. The rest of us peons are pieces on a game board.

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jcranberry 1726 days ago
Here is a fairly deep dive into the case by a lawyer on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7d2KoXmPXk

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