More of the Tapes the Plaintiffs Don’t Want You to See

A week after the first video outtakes of the documentary film Crude were posted on Law.com, four more clips are now available at Corporate Counsel:

• Latest Chevron Outtakes I: ‘Killing the Judge?’ : At a dinner party, the woman next to Donziger suggests that the Ecuadorian judge presiding at the end of the trial might fear for his life if he rules against plaintiffs. Donziger responds that the judge “might not be [killed], but he’ll think — he thinks he will be … which is just as good.” Judge Kaplan recounted this scene without commentary in his Nov. 5 ruling under the heading “Killing the Judge?” The bracketed text is from his opinion. Plaintiffs have dismissed the conversation as meaningless banter.
• Latest Chevron Outtakes II: ‘It’s Dirty … It’s Necessary’ :  On March 30, 2006, Donziger is in a car en route to a confrontation with Judge Germán González of Pichincha Civil Court. Chevron has asked the judge to inspect a laboratory used by plaintiffs to analyze soil samples, but the plaintiffs are about to block the judge from entering the laboratory. Donziger repeatedly expresses disgust over the techniques to which he says he must resort. Says Donziger: “The only language that I believe this judge is going to understand is one of pressure, intimidation, and humiliation. And that’s what we’re doing today. … As a lawyer, I never do this. You don’t have to do this in the United States. It’s dirty. … It’s necessary. I’m not letting them get away with this stuff.”
• Latest Chevron Outtakes III: ‘Brute Force’ : At the start of this clip, Donziger continues his meditations on the theme of law and politics. The case against Chevron, he proclaims, is “about brute force” rather than “all this bullshit about the law and facts,” which only “affects the level of force.” He adds: “It’s the only way to litigate a case against a powerful company on behalf of people with no power.”
• Latest Chevron Outtakes IV: Calling for Heads to Roll : In this scene from March 2007, Donziger is euphoric about the news that newly elected Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has recommended prosecuting the government lawyers who released Texaco from liability when it left the country. Donziger appears to suggest on the phone that a lawyer who worked for Texaco, Rodrigo Pérez Pallares, should also be prosecuted. “[P]erhaps it is time to ask for the head of Pérez Pallares,” he says. Judge Kaplan adds in his Nov. 5 ruling that President Correa called the next day for prosecution of the Texaco attorneys, whom Correa called the “Chevron-Texaco … homeland-selling lawyers.”

Share