NY Judge Says Donziger Bias Argument Is Too Little, Too Late- Law360

A New York federal judge has denied a request from embattled attorney Steven Donziger for all Southern District judges to be disqualified from his criminal contempt case.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Donziger’s racketeering trial with Chevron Corp. six years ago and later triggered the ongoing criminal case against the environmental lawyer, said there was “no merit whatsoever” to the assertion that he was in “allegiance” with the energy giant.

Moreover, Donziger and others have repeatedly raised the judicial bias argument at previous stages in the drawn-out dispute, and seen it rejected by the district court and at the Second Circuit, Judge Kaplan wrote. And while Donziger appealed the RICO ruling from 2014 to the Second Circuit — the appeals court affirmed — and challenged various rulings, he didn’t contest a now years-old recusal denial decision by Judge Kaplan.

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