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The environmental organization Greenpeace was ordered to pay more than $660 million dollars to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer this week over its role in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests nearly a decade ago. The outcome was a blow to the environmental advocacy group, which has previously said that a lawsuit of this size could bankrupt its U.S. operations. Energy Transfer, the operator of the Dakota Access Pipeline, accused Greenpeace USA and International of playing a central role in organizing the resistance to the pipeline at Standing Rock in 2016 and 2017. The protests drew national attention as activists...

The environmental group Greenpeace has been ordered by a North Dakota jury to pay more than $660 million in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s construction.

(The Center Square) – Eight years after the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and accompanying protests at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the long-awaited trial between Energy Transfer and Greenpeace is winding down. Closing arguments in the trial are set to begin Monday, followed by jury deliberations and a verdict. The lawsuit hinges on Greenpeace’s involvement in protests that occurred in the fall of 2016, as well as its communication with banks that were financing the pipeline’s construction. Energy Transfer has tried to prove that the environmental activist group funded and incited violence, trespassing and other unlawful acts,...

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday in a pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace, a case the environmental advocacy group said could have consequences for free speech and protest rights and threaten the organization’s future. The jury will deliberate after the closing arguments and jury instructions. Nine jurors and two alternates have heard the case. Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, its American branch Greenpeace USA, and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars...

The Texas-based company, Energy Transfer, alleges protest tactics by Greenpeace delayed the project, which began transporting oil in 2017 after President Donald Trump backed in his first term. Protests against the pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation drew thousands, but Greenpeace says it did not lead them and the lawsuit threatens free speech. The organisation "could face financial ruin, ending over 50 years of environmental activism" if it loses, it also says. The trial in North Dakota is expected to last five weeks, beginning with jury selection on Monday. The lawsuit, filed in state court, accuses Greenpeace of an...

Republican Senator John Cornyn (TX) said he “absolutely” wants to review the House Ethics Committee’s investigation of Matt Gaetz. Fresh off of losing his bid to be Senate Majority Leader, RINO Cornyn told reporters that he wants to see Matt Gaetz’s ethics report after Trump nominated him as US Attorney General. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday evening after President Trump announced his nomination for US Attorney General.