We left off last time with each side accusing the other of bribing Ecuadorian judge Alberto

Gera.

And we're going to get back to the end of that story today, I promise.

But first, we need to talk about another judge.

The American Louis A. Kaplan, senior district court judge in the Southern District of New

York. Kaplan approved Chevron's various subpoenas prior to the Rico being filed. He oversaw

the Rico trial itself, and he's the judge behind Stephen Donziger's current troubles too.

He's the guy who charged Donziger with first civil and then criminal contempt.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Kaplan was a lawyer. He worked at Paul Weiss,

Exxon Mobos' law firm of choice, defending tobacco companies in the 70s and 80s. As a judge,

he has a reputation for ruling in favor of corporations. Kaplan ruled on behalf of RJ Reynolds

in a cigarette smuggling case in 2002, and he ruled in defense of the accounting firm KPMG

when the government went after them for creating tax shelters for the wealthy. According to Stephen

Donziger's attorney, Lauren Regan, Kaplan has been a friend to Chevron throughout the

company's decade-long pursuit of her client.

Afteridas got arrested-

the legal team, you know, started going to your PN countries and Canada and other places

to begin collecting on the judgment.

And at that time, Chevron started going around to various states in the U.S. asking the

U.S. court to put a stop, basically, to those proceedings.

And most states in the U.S. shoot them away.

And so that's not real.

...