A North Dakota ju apprentice has determined that Environmental Group Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the pipeline company’s energy transfer and will be liable for defamation and other claims for the state’s protest nearly a decade ago.
The Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partner, an oil and gas company with nearly $70 billion, has insisted on orchestrating protestor honour and criminal activity at the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017, and the organization uses “false information campaigns” to protest.
Greenpeace, who denied the allegations, said in a post-ruling statement that such lawsuits aimed at “destroying the right to peaceful protest.” Constitutional rights experts had expressed fear that the incident could have a wider, more calm impact on freedom of speech.
The nine ju apprentices in Mandan, North Dakota, were found to support most numbers of energy transfer after more than two days of deliberation. It awarded at least $660 million in energy transfers, according to Greenpeace’s calculations.
The Environmental Group, which had raised concerns about a fair hearing in the oil and gas country before the trial, said losses and huge financial awards could lead to US businesses bankruptcy. Energy Transfer sued three GreenPeace entities, claiming they were a single organization, not an independent member of the GreenPeace network.
Greenpeace will appeal the decision, the organization said.
The incident is closely monitored by First Amendment experts amid a wider nonprofit organization and concerns about how it will affect its activities.
“What we saw over the last three weeks was the voices of the blatantly neglected Standing Rocksou tribes of energy transfer, and while we tried to distort the truth about Greenpeace’s role in the protest, we instead reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to non-violence in every action we take.
“We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment and the lawsuits like these aimed at destroying the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech. Greenpeace will continue to play its part in fighting to protect these fundamental rights for all,” Padmanava said.
Greenpeace International was one of three entities sued for energy transfer. Its legal counsel, Christine Casper, said the organization’s fight would continue. “Energy transfer has not heard us last in this fight. We are just beginning our anti-SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) and lawsuits against the attack on energy transfer against free speech and peaceful protests.
Energy Transfer thanked the judges and ju-degree in a statement, saying, “We are pleased that Greenpeace is responsible for its actions against us, but we know that this victory will be a violation between Greenpeace, both in the people of Mandan and across North Dakota. Disropters are responsible. It’s a victory for all of us.”
Trey Cox, Energy Transfer lawyer for the case, said the ju-search verdict was “reverberating,” indicating Greenpeace’s actions were illegal. “It’s also a celebration day for the Constitution, North Dakota and Energy Transfer,” he said.
During the selection of ju umpires, potential ju umpires appeared to be heavily disliked protests, many of which had to do with the fossil fuel industry. Ultimately, more than half of the ju apprentices selected after hearing that the incident had connections with the fossil fuel industry had mostly anti-pipeline protests or groups negative views against the use of fossil fuels.
“Today’s verdict is not a reflection of the fraud on the part of Greenpeace, but rather a long list of court tactics and propaganda tricks in which energy transfers were used to deny Greenpeace’s fair trial rights.” “I hope the North Dakota Supreme Court will question why this case was brought to trial in the first place.”
Concerns about finding unbiased ju umpires plagued the lawsuit even before it began, given the political trends to the right of Mandan, North Dakota and the dislike of local residents’ protests. The mysterious right-wing mailer, crafted to look like a newspaper called “Central nd News,” contained articles that leaned towards pipeline protests and supported energy transfer. Over the past few months, Greenpeace has argued that it could pollute the ju judge’s pool.
Greenpeace attempted to move the trial to another venue in North Dakota multiple times, but was shot down by the county court and the North Dakota Supreme Court. Judge James Zeon denied a request for live streaming, which was brought to preside over the case after a Morton County judge rejected himself, and that the state Supreme Court denied.
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Legal sources say the incident is a classic example of slaps. This is a form of civil litigation that is increasingly unfolded by businesses, politicians and wealthy individuals to deliberately wear and silence critics, including journalists, activists and watchdog groups. These cases can cause significant legal costs to the defendant and have a calm effect even if the guilty entity loses.
The five-week trial saw an attempt to transfer energy to link many of the wrongdoings or confusion caused by the protest against Greenpeace.
Standinglock issued a statement after the trial began approving it, claiming that the trial led the protest and that the tribe had continued problems obtaining safety information from the energy transfer. The pipeline company said, “We had been pursuing monetary damages and seeking financial damage designed to close the Standing Rock that supports all voices. This incident is an attempt to silence our tribes about the truth of what happened at Standing Rock.
On the last day of the incident, Kelsey Warren, founder of the Energy Transfer Billionaire and a leading donor to Donald Trump, said his company had stopped the protests in order to provide financial incentives that include money, a luxury ranch and a new school, and to halt the protests to the Standing Rocksou tribe. Warren said he believes the tribe rejected the offer as it was provided more by Earthjustice, which served as the tribe’s legal representative.
The Court Oversight Committee issued a statement after the ruling that stated the trial was “deeply flawed,” denying its ability to present full defense to Greenpeace. The committee monitored all parts of the trial and concluded that the ju-search was biased in favor of energy transfer, and the judge lacked complete legal knowledge on the complex issues at hand.
Martiger Bus, a longtime amendment counsel who is part of the monitoring group, said: “My 60-year legal practice has never witnessed a trial that was as unfair as Greenpeace, which just ended in a North Dakota courthouse.
The trial comes after Energy Transfer first filed the RICO case in federal court in 2017. The federal assault case was dismissed on February 14, 2019, but seven days later the Energy Transfer remodeled the virtually identical case in North Dakota Court.
