MORTON COUNTY, ND (Legal Newsline) - Energy Transfer rested its case against Greenpeace defendants on Monday as it seeks to recover $300 million in damages over violent protests that caused the Dakota Access Pipeline to miss a crucial deadline for online production.
Central to the plaintiff’s argument was Greenpeace’s involvement with payments and materials to their own personnel and Greenpeace-allied protesters such as Indigenous Peoples Power (IP3) and Red Warrior Camp, who committed acts of violence, property damage, and obstruction to pipeline equipment and workers during the fall 2016, over the planned Missouri River crossing upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation.
Lawyers for Energy Transfer laid out for jurors the process used by Greenpeace to fund and support protests either directly or through soliciting others to do so. They showed subsequent protester “militant direct action” violence, as well as damage directed at Energy Transfer human and equipment assets as well as law enforcement.
According to the plaintiff attorneys, Greenpeace began its coordination with the protesters beginning in early August with the known violent Red Warrior Camp and its founder, Krystal Two Bulls. Lawyers for Energy Transfer also argued that the Red Warrior group was so troublesome that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe leaders themselves expelled Red Warrior camps from protest sites on Nov. 16, 2016.
Energy Transfer has called the Red Warrior Camp “a front for eco-terrorists.”
Jurors also were shown financial ties to violence and damage through an Aug. 30, 2016, email from a founding member of the American Indian activist organization IP3, Nick Tilsen, to Greenpeace employee Cy Wagoner, who also sits on the board of IP3.
“Our ability to provide this level of training would not be possible without financial support from Greenpeace,” Tilsen wrote on Aug. 30, 2016, the day when Morton County law enforcement testified they were first asked to cut a protester tied to their equipment with a lockbox.
Energy Transfer showed that Wagoner was on the ground with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe protesters by mid-August 2016, along with Tilsen.
Protesters were preliminarily given $21,000 via a Greenpeace “rapid response” grant, which was soon expanded to include other payments and materials, such as a famous solar powered van called “Rolling Sunlight,” more than 30 lockboxes (also called dragon sleeves) to tie protesters to pipeline construction equipment, and propane canisters shown during trial to be lit on fire and thrown at law enforcement and Energy Transfer workers. The canisters also were used to light trucks on fire and block roadways needed to access the construction sites.
Plaintiffs have attempted to show a high level of coordination between Greenpeace and the most violent protesters which caused Energy Transfer to miss its Jan. 1, 2017 production deadline, a date the company was contractually obligated to be online or clients could take business to competitors.
The earliest mention in internal Greenpeace emails of alleged coordination with Krystal Two Bulls from Red Warrior Camp was an Aug. 9, 2016 email introduced during video deposition testimony with Lilian Molina - one of the “Greenpeace 6” - discussing an email from John Carroll to Benjamin Smith at Greenpeace stating, “I have been in touch with Krystal Two Bulls” and Benjamin Smith replying, “I have checked with Lilian Molina (cc'd).”
Greenpeace Fund and Greenpeace Inc. executive director Annie Leonard is shown in an Aug. 24, 2016 email regarding her recent talk with Tom Goldstooth, who Greenpeace employees labeled as “tribal elder” at the Standing Rock protests in August 2016. Leonard states in that email, “He (Tom) said they need skilled experienced action teams.”
During deposition testimony, Greenpeace official Molina confirmed that “this is the biggest financial request from Annie Leonard she remembered dealing with” during Standing Rock protests for IP3.
The request included $10,000 for the Rolling Sunlight solar powered van Greenpeace had in a Seattle warehouse that was deployed by a Greenpeace 6 member – Davey Khoury - to do “some serious spy stuff,” as internal Greenpeace emails would later call his activities in and near the Standing Rock protests camps.
According to Energy Transfer, Rolling Sunlight and Khoury played important roles in Greenpeace Financial and logistical ties to violence and damage to Dakota Access Pipeline in fall 2016, as the van was used as a “scout” vehicle to decide where, how, when, and what equipment and tactics should be used for obstruction, damage, or delay in pipeline construction.
The plaintiff also provided evidence that Khoury sent the Google earth file maps showing Energy Transfer’s construction site and path, intelligence he obtained from driving around Morton County and the known path of the pipeline and private access roads used by construction workers.
Greenpeace ultimately approved $15,892 to send to IP3 for activities from Aug. 30 to Sept. 15, 2016 – a period in which protests escalated.
An additional $6,250 was granted for IP3 for stipends for things such as paying the IP3 trainers per diem, and travel expenses to get to and from the protests.
As the grant period ended Sept. 15, 2016, Energy Transfer showed an email from Wagoner asking for additional support from Greenpeace.
“We believe this proposal has the potential to provide skills training to 3,000 activists,” Wagoner wrote.
One day before funding was to expire on Sept. 15, 2016, Tilsen and Daniel T’Aseli from IP3 were arrested for tying themselves to Energy Transfer construction equipment.
Jurors saw video of the arrest, and while they were not allowed to hear the audio, Energy Transfer attorney Trey Cox said that Tilsen was alleged to have bragged that “Greenpeace gave me $90,000,” as witnessed by the arresting officer.
During her video deposition testimony played for the jury, the court learned of a Nov. 14, 2016 email from Leonard to Karen Topakin from the Greenpeace USA board.
“We are doing massive stuff for Standing Rock,” Leonard wrote, adding examples such as “Raised $78k from 3 foundations for direction action, sent our mobile truck and trainers, built and donated more than 30 lockboxes and organized supply drives for our members across the country.”
The defense began its case on Monday afternoon.
In its third week, the trial is expected to last five weeks.