Louisiana Trial Lawyers Steered Thousands to Judge Overseeing Their Case Against Oil Companies—Then Won a $744 Million Judgment

By Thomas Catenacci

The Louisiana attorneys who helped secure a landmark verdict requiring U.S. oil company Chevron to pay $744 million in environmental damages gave nearly $15,000 to the state judge who presided over the case, ethics filings reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

The Baton Rouge-based law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello and its lead partners gave $5,000 to Judge Michael Clement’s campaign across four separate payments made on March 24, 2014, according to the filings. Days earlier, four other firms involved in the case gave Clement another $3,500. Those contributions were in addition to the $6,250 the firms wired Clement in 2011 and 2012.

The 2014 contributions came during a judicial election in which Clement ran unopposed. It also came four months after the firms filed their landmark environmental lawsuit against more than a dozen other oil companies, including Chevron, in Clement’s judicial district…

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (freebeacon.com)

 

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