Ecuador’s attorney general still somewhat echoes Mr. García’s interpretation of the events caught on the tapes, saying that Chevron’s contacts with the businessmen who discussed bribes mean the company should be investigated in the United States for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which outlaws bribery of foreign officials to obtain business.

“It seems to me that Chevron’s strategy is to delegitimize the actions of our judges,” said Washington Pesántez, the attorney general. He added that he regretted that a resolution of the lawsuit, which has dragged on for 16 years, had been delayed by a month with the disclosure of the videos. “Justice that is delayed is not justice,” Mr. Pesántez said.

The tapes were the latest turn in a legal marathon over oil contamination left by Texaco years before it was acquired by Chevron. On one tape, Judge Núñez seems to suggest that he plans to rule against Chevron and that damages could exceed $27 billion, making it potentially the biggest environmental suit in history.

Whether Chevron avoided such an outcome by releasing the tapes may not become clear for months, or even years. Chevron gambled that the disclosure of the videos would enable it to cast doubt on the integrity of the trial and the honesty of the Ecuadorean legal system. But the tapes have also raised questions about its ties to the men who made the recordings, potentially opening the company to a new legal fight.

Taping conversations without everyone’s permission is illegal in Ecuador, and trying to bribe foreign officials is illegal under American law. But shades of gray tinge nearly everything to do with the videos. For instance, Mr. García, the political go-between, said the businessmen who tied him to the bribery plot joked about recording their meetings with a wristwatch, potentially giving them a way out if scrutiny of their tactics intensifies.

Image Left, Washington Pesántez, Ecuadors attorney general, says the United States should investigate Chevron. Patricio García, at the center of a bribery case, claims Chevron entrapped him. Credit... Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

“For someone who is trying to figure out what you can learn from this, it’s not as though it yields a rational narrative,” said Ralph G. Steinhardt, professor of law and international affairs at George Washington University Law School, who has been following the case. “In trying to appreciate the complexities of this case, you need to have the skills of a poker player rather than the skills of a lawyer.”