WEBVTT - S5 Ep9 | The Judge 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.559 We left off last time with each side accusing the 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:17.040 other of bribing Ecuadorian judge Alberto Ghera, and we're going 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.040 to get back to the end of that story today, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:23.240 I promise. But first we need to talk about another judge, 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:27.800 the American Lewis A Caplan, Senior District court judge in 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:32.320 the Southern District of New York. Caplan approved Chevron's various 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.440 subpoenas prior to the RICO being filed. He oversaw the 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.360 rico trial itself, and he's the judge behind Stephen Donziger's 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.760 current troubles too. He's the guy who charged Donziger with 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:47.080 first civil and then criminal contempt. Prior to his appointment 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.559 to the bench, Caplan was a lawyer. He worked at 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.720 Paul Weiss ex On Mobiles, law firm of choice, defending 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.320 tobacco companies in the seventies and eighties. As a judge, 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.680 he has a reputation for ruling in favor of corporations. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.440 Kaplan ruled on behalf of R. J. Reynolds in a 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.080 cigarette smuggling case in two thousand and two, and he 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.679 ruled in defense of the accounting firm KPMG when the 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.960 government went after them for creating tax shelters for the wealthy. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:18.759 According to Stephen Donziger's attorney, Lauren Reagan, Caplan has been 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.200 a friend to Chevron throughout the company's decade long pursuit 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:23.160 of her client. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.480 Ecuador's Supreme Court validated the judgment and said, yep, they 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.200 always used nine billion dollars. And Chevron basically gave him 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.200 the finger and said, you know, pulled all their assets 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.200 out of Ecuador. I was like, oh, no one here 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.120 for you to take. And so then, you know, the 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.200 way the legal system works is you can go to 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.399 other countries where assets exist and ask that country to 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.520 assist in collecting the debt. And so don Zigger and 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.440 the legal team, you know, started going to European countries 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:00.000 and Canada and other places to begin collecting on the judge. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:05.800 And at that time, Chevron started going around to various 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:12.359 states in the US asking the US court to put 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.120 a stop basically. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:15.240 To those proceedings. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.880 And most states in the US shoot him away and 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.679 said that's that's not real. But when they got to 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.519 Judge Kaplan's court in the Southern District of New York, 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:29.920 you know, he's a former tobacco lobbyist, and so Chevron 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.720 realized they had a friend in that courtroom on this 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.440 like minor proceeding. And then while they were in that 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.840 minor proceeding, it was Kaplin that said, you know, this 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:43.440 sounds like a RICO case. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:48.600 Kaplan has denied this. He says Chevron already made its 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.320 intention to file a RICO claim known before he made 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:56.200 these comments. Donziger and the Logo Ugriel plaintiffs have accused 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.720 Kaplan of bias against them on other fronts too. Here's 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.560 Donald Moncayo. You might remember him from earlier episodes. He's 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.080 the guy who used to lead people on tours of 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.360 the toxic pits in the Amazon. Moncayo came to New 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.760 York to testify in the Rico case. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:19.359 Yes, Paramil, who is corpor mas l. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.320 He says for me, Caplin was a corporate judge, the 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:30.200 most racist judge I've ever seen. We've heard stuff like 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.480 this from quite a few Ecuadorians and their lawyers. They've 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.040 told us that Caplin didn't really understand Spanish, that he 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:43.000 didn't grasp Ecuadorian law or the differences between Ecuadorian law 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.480 and US law, and that he was just generally dismissive 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.680 of the Ecuadorians. We're going to dig into whether and 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.560 how that played out in the Rigo trial right after 0:03:52.600 --> 0:04:15.960 this quick break. Zoe Littlepage, who represented Donziger in the 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.120 Rico trial, said the court's preferential treatment of Chevron was 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:21.880 obvious from the jump. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.680 Judge Caplin likes to run a very tight ship, as 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:32.480 many federal judges do, and he was not amused by activism, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:38.119 and he certainly was not amused by Stephen's attempt to 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.760 be both an activist and a lawyer. In fact, he 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.800 appeared to be sort of insulted by lawyers who went 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.520 beyond just being an advocate and actually being an activist. So, remember, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.360 all of the underlying facts of the case was Stephen 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.880 and many activists groups attempts to get the word out 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.320 about what was happening in the Amazon, and. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.400 So for a lawyer to sort of cross those lines 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.880 and attend protests. 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.760 And be a part of an activism movement appeared to 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.640 upset and anger Judge Caplan. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.839 Little Page says even the logistics of the courtroom favored Chevron. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:24.240 Judge Caplan gave Chevron half of the room, so they 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:29.000 had five or six rows of benches. Then he gave 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.520 the media every other seat except for one row, which 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.360 seats about six or seven people, so that was all 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.240 we were allowed to bring in on our triality was 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:42.440 six or seven people because they couldn't sit. He also 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:48.800 gave Chevron a jury room for all their extra lawyers 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.880 who couldn't fit in their five or six rows, and 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.920 all their legal assistants and all their boxes. And in 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:05.160 that courtroom we had several human rights nonprofit law firms 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.080 had provided us with lawyers to help with briefing and 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.599 with getting the case ready at night, so we had 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.320 four or five volunteer lawyers. 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:15.080 Who were working for us. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.800 So in the mornings we would be lined up in 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.320 this very long line. We had to get there very early, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.440 and it was in October November, so it was cold, 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:26.960 so we would be all bundled up. We would be 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.800 in this long line to get through security to get 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.839 into the courthouse, and we'd have our blow ups and 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:38.680 our boxes with us and our briefcases, and then you 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:45.719 would see a row of five black Lincoln suburbans arrive 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:52.960 with tinted windows, and out of it would come the 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.359 senior management of Chevron, their head of litigation, their entire 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.440 legal team, and they were ushered in through a separate 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.000 entrance as VIPs, so they didn't have to stand in 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.400 the line with all the rest of us. 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:08.240 They would get out. 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:10.840 And go straight into the courtroom, So we would have 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.720 been in line for forty five minutes when they would 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.600 arrive and go straight through. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.160 Julio Gomez is the attorney for the Ecuadorians named as 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.200 defendants in the Rico case. He says he also saw 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:38.560 examples of this, particularly with respect to how stacked the 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.200 case was in favor of Chevron, simply by virtue of 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.520 Chevron having the budget to put what Gomez, Little Page, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.520 and Donziger all described as a quote unquote army of 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:49.960 lawyers on this case. 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.400 For example, one of the things we wanted to do 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:56.000 in our case is to have live testimony. In any 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:58.720 usual case, you have a witness get on the stand 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.840 and they give what's they direct examination. Their attorney questions them, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.720 what happened to you, what did you see, what did 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.440 you observe, et cetera, and then the other side cross 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.200 examines you live. That's the way most trials are conducted 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.800 in the United States. In New York, in this particular, trial. 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.240 New York has this practice where, well, you know, that 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.960 can take too long. So what we'll do is we'll 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.400 have the witness submit a written testimony, and then the 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.320 other side just gets up and cross examines them based 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.640 on that written testimony that they submitted. Think about what 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.680 happens in a case where you are a small team 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:38.200 up against Chevron. Chevron has thirty witnesses, and a day 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.120 before trial or two days before trial, you are handed 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:47.120 thirty written testimonies with you know, ten to fifty exhibits each. 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.280 Now you, as the cross examining attorney, has to read 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.040 all twenty or thirty of these written testimonies in a 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:01.160 short period of time, process all all of those exhibits, 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.240 prepare all of your cross examination questions, and come into 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.920 court and start doing one after the other after the other. 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:09.160 That's crazy. 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.320 Yeah, that's just impossible. I would have much preferred having 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.880 them testify live, because not only do they have to 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.880 tell their story properly, and some witnesses, no matter how 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.040 well you prepare them, are going to screw up when 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:25.520 they give their testimony in court. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:27.240 That would have benefited us. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.960 But more importantly, we would have heard the testimony in 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.640 real time and had time to react to it slowly, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.160 as opposed to being bombarded with all of the testimony 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.079 at once and then being required to prepare to go 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.920 in and cross examine and everybody in the next week. 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.240 Guma says he actually asked Caplan to space out the testimony, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.440 have live testimony and live cross examinations, but to no avail. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.560 We made repeated appeals to Kaplan that take into account 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.840 our life act of resources to develop procedures for the 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:08.080 trial that could counteract the prejudice that these procedures would 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.440 cause on the plaintiffs, on Steven Donziger, and on the 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:15.840 Ecuadorian plaintiffs. And I don't remember any instance when the 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.360 court made those kinds of accommodations to us. Judge says, no, 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.840 we do this all the time in New York. There's 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.680 nothing unusual about doing this the way, and we're going 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:25.880 to do it this way in this case. 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.440 The mismatch of resources is something that came up a 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.400 lot when we started digging into the Rico case. A 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.920 couple episodes back, filmmaker Joe Berlinger said something about how 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.680 we have a justice system where deep pockets prevail. Gomez 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.240 said something very similar about the Rico trial. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.600 What would it take to mount the challenge to that 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:53.839 another oil company. The people don't understand the incredible, incredible 0:10:53.880 --> 0:11:00.840 inequity in our legal system to finances. Know, if you 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:07.040 have the money, you can right the most incredibly prepared, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:12.960 beautifully articulated briefs. You can hire the best investigators. You 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.080 can look under every stone, you can hire the best 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.920 experts with the best credentials. I mean, you can, whether 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.440 whether you're on the right or on the side of wrong, 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:29.640 you can create an incredible presentation with resources. If you don't, 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:35.800 everything is less than satisfactory. That's why you know. That's 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.880 why you know. When what are the proper matchups? It's 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.240 it's Microsoft only only. Can only go up against Google, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.600 Apple can only go up against Samsung, Chevron can only 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:50.000 go up against Exon Mobile, and vice versa. Because that's 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:55.160 the only way to do it right. To meet every expert, 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.359 to meet every motion, you need exactly the same resources. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.480 And unfortunately our judicial system does not take that into account. 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.560 That mismatch started to come into play more and more 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.960 as the case wore on. It showed up in a 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.080 lot of different ways, like the number and length of 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.000 motions that Chevron filed. 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.319 You know, you could work on this case twenty four 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.080 hours a day, not sleep, not eat, not spend time 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.319 with your family, not spend time working on other cases 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.120 to earn a living, and you wouldn't have enough time 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.240 to do everything that a thousand attorneys on the other 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.000 side were doing or piling on you to do, because 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.000 Chevron would file every type of motion they could at 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.120 every single instance they did it. That was just it 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:39.079 was insane. 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.079 On top of what was happening in court, Chevron had 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.600 attorneys working the case out of the courts too. 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:49.840 Chevron plays dirty by putting pressure on pieces of the 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.560 strategy that would benefit them. So, for example, they went 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:58.880 after the Ecuadorians had hired an environmental engineering firm to 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.160 do the analysis in Ecuador, and Chevron was making arguments 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:07.120 that those analyzes were not only unreliable, they were being 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.360 ghosts written by this firm for the other experts in Ecuador. 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.760 One of the things that Chevron did was to put 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.280 you know, that's an environmental engineering firm. It's a business 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.480 like any other business. The Ecuador and plaintiffs are not 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.040 their only client. They have other clients that they do 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:25.680 work for and that's how they earn their living, and 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:27.320 that's how they pay their rent, and that's how they 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:32.080 pay their employees. Well, Chevron would contact those other clients 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:36.360 and try to persuade them to stop using the environmental 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:41.600 engineering firm. They would defame the firm to those other clients, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.640 so that if you continued to work on the case, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.120 or if you did not do Chevron's bidding, and by 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.600 doing Chevron's bidding, I mean switch sides. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.720 Gumez is talking about Stratus, the environmental engineering firm that 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.000 worked on the Cabrera Report. Now, remember the Cabrera Report 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.280 is something we've about quite a bit. It's this report 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.440 that the Damage's assessment was initially based on in Ecuador. 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.720 Mastro says Donziger and the Ecuadorians were far too involved 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.760 in what was supposed to be an independent report and 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.640 that Stratus should not have been writing any part of it. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.280 Donziger says it was all perfectly legal within Ecuadorian law. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.280 In either case, Chevron went after Stratus hard. They told 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.840 the company's clients and anyone else who would listen that 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.800 Stratus was part of an international conspiracy to defraud Chevron. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:35.600 In one case, Chevron even sent a letter to the 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.320 Portland Harbor in Oregon, which had hired Stratus for a project. 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.440 They wrote, quote, because of the extensive evidence of corrupt 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.920 activity on the part of Stratus in furtherance of the 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.840 claims in Ecuador, Chevron believes that it would be in 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.560 the best interest of all the parties involved at the 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.480 Portland Harbor site for the trustees to sever ties with Stratus. 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.360 Multiple letters were sent to the Portland Council too. Vron 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.280 posted an article and video on its website accusing Stratus 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.400 of fraud too. At one point, Stratus even countersuits Chevron 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:12.560 for libel and slander. That complaint reads quote. Filing suit 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.600 against Stratus was not enough for Chevron. Now it has 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:20.040 embarked on an extra judicial campaign of malicious defamation and 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:25.000 deliberate interference with Stratus's business to tortiously destroy Stratus and 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:28.400 the livelihood of its employees, and to prevent Stratus from 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:33.120 being able to successfully defend itself a trial against Chevron's allegations. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.440 We asked Randy Mastro, the attorney heading up the Rico 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.080 case for Chevron, about this. 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.160 When you are the victim of a fraud. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:49.560 And as an extortion scheme, as Chevron believed it was. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:51.360 It took. 0:15:54.840 --> 0:16:06.720 Tenacity and conviction and perseverance and principle to stand up 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.920 to the fraud, so that Chevron asserted every form that 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:18.080 would listen that this is what we believe happened here 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:18.840 and it was wrong. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.160 And then for Chevron to prove it. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:23.640 I mean, I I. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.360 Think that Chevron not only had every right to do that, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:30.120 I think. 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:39.440 It's it speaks volumes about you know, Chevron on behalf 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.560 of its shareholders and stakeholders. 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:48.120 I'm doing the right thing and not being m hm. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:57.480 Pressured or or holding back in the face of what 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.720 I believed to be a fraud and mix extortion scheme 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:05.040 than not paying tribute to anyone involved in that fraud 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:06.000 or extortion scheme. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.920 Two years after his original deposition, Stratus VP Douglas Beltman 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:20.560 recanted his testimony. In that recantation, Beltman notes that he 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.600 and colleague and Macet wrote the Cabrera Report with no 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.440 interaction with Cabrera. He also notes repeatedly that they were 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:33.520 never directed to try to separate Petro Ecuador's responsibilities from Texico's, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.240 which became Chevron's, and that they were instructed by Donziger 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:40.760 to use a contamination standard that would increase the cost 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:45.120 of remediation. The focus is specifically on Damage's claims and 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:48.440 whether there was evidence to back them up, and Beltman 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.560 never does say anything like there was no contamination. It's 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.639 more about who's responsible financially for the contamination, not whether 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.400 or not it exists, or even whether or not Texico 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:00.320 had a hand in it. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.960 They convinced that firm or forced that firm, in my opinion, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.239 to switch sides and turn against the Ecuadorian plaintifs who 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:16.000 were their clients. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.320 Gomez and little Page made this argument in court as well, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:24.360 but Kaplan wasn't having it. We asked Donziger about Beltman's 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.240 recantation too, because he looms large in it as the 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.480 person directing Beltman's work. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:38.240 Douglas Beltman. That just makes me weep and hurt. Doug 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:42.600 was one of our scientific experts, a wonderful man of 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:48.720 high integrity and intelligence and skill. And Chevron just I 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.879 think they just destroyed his life. I mean, they named 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:57.239 his company as a defendant in the Rico case. They 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.480 got a law firm, and they countersued chevn N for 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:07.439 defamation and tortious interference with their business and in the 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.360 end of the day to settle the case as between 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:16.320 the consultancy, which was called Stratus, Beltman and another scientist 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.439 there named Anne Mace, and Chevron, Stratus came to an 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:25.280 agreement that required Beltman and Mace to put in affidavits 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:29.600 that contained a ton of false information. Telling LYE Beltman 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.240 never came to testify. And the sad part is, I 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.680 think when Doug wrote that affidavit, you know, with all 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.040 this distorted or false information, I think he thought that 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.040 would be the end of his problem. But what ended 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.359 up happening is right after he submitted it, his partners 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:49.280 fired him anyway, and he hasn't been heard from since. 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.240 So I don't know what happened to him, and I'm scared. Honestly, 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:59.000 He's another one of Chevron's victims, and you know, I 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.880 worry about him. I think about him a lot. Actually, 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:03.359 I have no idea where he is. 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.879 My co reporter on this season, Karen Savage found Doug Beltman. 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.240 He's retired now and can't talk publicly about the case 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:14.879 because he signed various agreements with Chevron that prohibit it. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:16.480 He said he wished he could talk to us, but 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.560 he couldn't, and he sounded pretty scared to attract any 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:27.040 attention from Chevron. Julio Gomez, the lawyer for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:29.720 said he also heard from lawyers at some of the 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.200 firms working on the case that Chevron was calling their 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.520 other clients applying pressure to Joe Cohne, a prominent lawyer 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.480 who had helped to fund the Lago Augdio litigation, was 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.639 another partner who testified against Donziger. 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.520 Okay, so one of the things that I saw is 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:52.000 a guy named Joseph Cohne, Yeah, testified against you, said 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.840 you obtained millions of dollars in litigation funding and didn't 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.520 keep him in the loop basically and misrepresented what was 0:20:59.560 --> 0:20:59.919 going on. 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:01.280 Tell us more about that. 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:08.040 Joe Cone is a prominent lawyer in Philly. His law 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.720 firm funded most of the case. They funded my work 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.760 on the case. For the most part, we worked well together. 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:20.000 He's a good, solid lawyer. When Chevron started to make 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:28.240 these allegations that the Cabrera report was done wrongly or fraudulently, 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.080 and then they filed the Rico case, Joe got extremely nervous. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:38.000 I think he was petrified that the Rico litigation would 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.520 name him as a defendant and he would be you know, 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.320 that time, they were suing us for sixty billion dollars, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:47.080 largest potential liability in US history, And I think he 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.080 thought his life was going to be destroyed and he 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:51.639 was going to be bankrupted, and his firm was going 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.000 to be closed down by a liability that might come 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.680 out of this fake Rico case. So I think out 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.080 of that fear, Joe started to cooperate with Chevron. I mean, 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.359 it's really no different in my mind than what a 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.000 lot of people did to get out from under the 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.680 pressure that Chevron and Judge Kapel were putting on them. 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:14.800 Other law firms who are working with US did this 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:16.960 as well, but many others stayed in there. I mean, 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.080 I don't want people to think that people just abandoned 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:24.480 the case, but there were certain individuals, Joe Cone among them, 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:28.639 who basically abandoned their duties to the case and to 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:33.680 the people of Ecuador into their own integrity in my view, 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.520 to get Chevron off their back. 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:41.080 The people who could have easily abandoned Donziger and didn't 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.399 were the Ecuadorians. The US courts really had no jurisdiction 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:48.399 over them. That's true in general, but in this case 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:53.080 in particular. Keep in mind that Chevron had argued itself 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:55.680 about a decade ago that the New York courts had 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.640 no jurisdiction over what had happened in Ecuador. Here's their attorney, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:01.280 who you'll Gomez again. 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:06.160 Looking back to take the position that this case cannot 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.240 return to New York at all, and that the defend 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:14.439 that the Ecuadorian plaintiffs should simply default entirely and not 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:19.840 do absolutely anything and completely protest the return of this 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:23.040 case to New York. If I had it to do 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.440 over again, that's probably the card that I would play. 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:29.600 It would have been better for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs to 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:33.560 be able to say in other countries, as a matter 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:38.320 of principle, we should not have been required to present 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:42.119 any evidence in New York after New York had already 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.840 told us to go home, and to bring us back 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:49.600 to do anything is completely illegitimate and completely wrong, and 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:50.120 we will not. 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:51.000 Participate in it. 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:52.879 I think if I had it to do over, I 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:56.960 would advise my client to do that, to completely protest 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:03.320 the trial. And and that's it. And unfortunately Stephen didn't 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.399 have that option because Stephen lives in New York and 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:09.280 he's subject to the jurisdiction of the court and he 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:12.560 has to defend the case. But my clients did have 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:16.399 that option, and that was not a card we chose 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:16.840 to play. 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:25.119 According to Donziger's lawyer in the Rico case, the Little Page, 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:29.240 Judge Kaplan focused on two key issues in the case, 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:33.040 the Cabrera report and the allegation that the judgment itself 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:34.360 had been ghostwritten. 0:24:35.240 --> 0:24:37.679 It was very clear Judge Kaplin was really focused on 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:41.879 the bribery, and so a lot of a lot of 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:44.919 the stuff that had happened in the underlying case, and 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:49.800 a lot of the disquiet that the tribesmen had about 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:52.720 the way Chevron had handled the case and some of 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:56.359 the sort of dirty tricks Chevron had played in Ecuador 0:24:56.440 --> 0:25:00.679 with the underlying case was not allowed into evidence. We 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:03.160 were not allowed to explore any of those prior issues. 0:25:03.480 --> 0:25:05.840 And Judge Caplin's ruling was it was just wasn't relevant. 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:09.879 He was really focused on some very specific incidents and 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:11.520 that's all he wanted to talk about, and he would 0:25:11.520 --> 0:25:13.920 not allow any evidence of anything else. The other thing 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:16.960 that Judge Kaplan was really sort of focused on, was 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:21.639 had the plaintiff's team cross the line with that court 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:27.439 expert and been sort of too interfering, helped him actually 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:30.960 create his report, helped him put together the exhibits to 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.840 his report, none of which is prohibited under Ecuador law. 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:39.280 We've covered the Cabrera report at length, but the bribery 0:25:39.320 --> 0:25:42.479 little pages referring to there brings us back to the 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:47.480 Gerra story. We heard last time from Chevron's attorney Randy 0:25:47.520 --> 0:25:50.720 Mastro that Ghera had been part of the conspiracy with 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:54.439