Special Prosecutor Argues Steve Donziger’s Bid For New Trial Doesn’t Address Guilt

The special prosecutor in the case against plaintiffs’’ lawyer Steven Donziger has told a Manhattan federal court that Donziger’s most recent bid for a new criminal trial should be tossed, according to a report in Reuters.

In a filing this week, special prosecutor Rita Glavin asked Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska to deny Donziger’s Aug. 3 motion for a new trial. Glavin, in the filing, says that “Donziger asserts no challenges to the facts underpinning the Court’s verdict of guilty” and that  Donziger falls short of meeting federal rules of criminal procedure requirements for a new trial.

Earlier this year, Donziger was found guilty of six counts of criminal contempt. The criminal charges result from post-judgment orders in a civil case in which a Manhattan judge barred enforcement in the United States of a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron, which Donziger had won in an Ecuadorian court. The judge found the ruling had been obtained through fraud.