Sept. 2016 protest of Dakota Access pipeline
MANDAN, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Greenpeace provided supplies, intel and training to demonstrators who spent months camping near the Dakota Access Pipeline river crossing in south central North Dakota, employees said in video testimony played to a Morton County jury on Friday.
The organization brought supplies like tents, power tools, a van equipped with solar panels, cameras, binoculars and propane. They taught protesters about “nonviolent direct action.” As colder weather approached, they also helped to winterize the camp.
Then-executive director of Greenpeace USA Annie Leonard characterized the environmental group’s support of the 2016 and 2017 protests as “massive” in two emails shown to jurors.
But Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, the incident commander for the monthslong protests, indicated on the witness stand Friday he was not aware of Greenpeace’s involvement.
Dakota Access Pipeline Developer Energy Transfer wants hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from Greenpeace. In the lawsuit — now on trial before a Morton County jury — Energy Transfer seeks to prove the environmental group secretly backed illegal behavior by protesters and conspired to wage a misinformation campaign against the company. It claims Greenpeace’s efforts halted construction of the pipeline and left the company with a litany of unplanned expenses.
Greenpeace denies Energy Transfer’s allegations. Attorneys representing the environmental group say it only played a supporting role in the demonstrations, that Greenpeace does not condone violence and that its employees never spent much time at the protest camps.
The case, which started its five-week trial Monday, is before Southwest Judicial District Judge James Gion.
Evidence presented in the trial so far indicates Greenpeace wasn’t high on police’s radar during the protests. Attorneys for Greenpeace introduced about 1,500 pages of law enforcement intel records from the demonstrations. One record from October 2016 identified organizations involved in the protest including the American Indian Movement, Native Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter and Anonymous, but didn’t list Greenpeace.
Attorneys for Energy Transfer pointed to just one reference to Greenpeace in the intel records, which connects the organization to a December 2016 protest at the Morton County Law Enforcement Center.
Kirchmeier testified that the protest grew in size after Standing Rock Chair Dave Archambault invited people to join the effort. He said it also grew after a Sept. 3, 2016 clash between protesters and private security involving dogs and after the Oct. 27, 2016 law enforcement effort to push protesters off of private property and onto Army Corps land. Other reasons the sheriff said contributed to the growth of protest were the explosion of social media and the controversial nature of where the pipeline was sited, including that it crossed unceded Sioux Nation territory.
Law enforcement first encountered in August 2016 lockbox devices — sometimes called “sleeping dragons” — which protesters used to tie themselves to equipment, Kirchmeier testified. He said the devices were used throughout the protests and were initially difficult for law enforcement to remove until they received training.
Kirchmeier testified he did not know who was providing the devices.
Depositions of Greenpeace employees that were played for jurors indicated that the organization provided 20 to 30 lockboxes to protesters.
Leonard said in her experience, lockboxes are usually used to attach people to one another. She said Greenpeace is opposed to violence and destruction of property.
Leonard, who was not at the protest, declined to answer questions about whether it would ever be appropriate for lockboxes provided by Greenpeace to be used to stop construction.
Attorneys for Energy Transfer highlighted an email Leonard wrote Nov. 30, 2016 that said: “We have provided massive support for this cause since day one in terms of people, material, support and funding.”
When asked about the email, Leonard said “massive” is a relative term and that the organization’s support for Standing Rock would not be considered massive when compared to how much it spends in the Arctic.
She also said in emails she raised $90,000 from foundations to support the demonstration. She said she raised the money in her personal capacity as an environmental activist, though Energy Transfer’s attorney pointed out she used her Greenpeace email.
Energy Transfer also asked Leonard if she verified claims against the pipeline listed in a November 2016 letter sent to banks urging them to pull financing for the project. Greenpeace was one of hundreds of organizations that signed the letter. Leonard testified her staff would have verified the information in the letter but she could not recall the conversation at the time of the deposition, which was about eight years later.
In a video deposition, Greenpeace employee David Khoury said he served as a “scout” during the demonstrations. His job was to gather information for other protesters, he said.
Khoury said he discovered property near Bismarck where some of the construction equipment for the pipeline was stored.
“This is some awesome spy sh–t,” he wrote in one email shown to jurors. He noted at the time that the site could be a good place to set up a blockade.
Khoury acknowledged some demonstrators committed acts of vandalism, but said he was not aware of this until after the fact. He said he also observed police violence against protesters during his visits.
He said he facilitated some protester trainings at the camp, which included admonitions against using violence.
Harmony Lambert, who worked as an activist training officer for Greenpeace, wrote in a blog post that the actions were crucial in pressuring a federal agency to halt progress on the pipeline in fall 2016. In the deposition, Lambert emphasized that the pressure was applied by the entire Indigenous-led movement, not solely the efforts of Greenpeace.
None of the Greenpeace employees testified in person Friday, but Greenpeace indicated it plans to call at least two of them to testify later.
One of the Dakota Access Pipeline’s head planners also took the stand this week.
Michael Futch, who was the North Dakota project manager for the pipeline, told the jury the pipeline was designed to be as safe and unobtrusive as possible. Energy Transfer hired the best contractors, construction managers, inspectors and auditors in the business for the project, he said.
Futch said he believes some of Greenpeace’s public statements about the pipeline may have harmed the project, but did not claim Greenpeace had a major presence at the camps.
He said allegations that the pipeline poses a threat to the environment are unfounded and malicious.
The protests — which Futch characterized as violent — delayed the pipeline’s completion for months, he said.
“It’s the most complex and tortured pipeline project I’ve ever had experience with,” Futch said.
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