#BreakingNews!

#EnergyTransfer's $300 Million Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace for #StandingRock #Resistance Delayed

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 29, 2024

STANDING ROCK, #NorthDakota -- "Energy Transfer's $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace and Standing Rock #WaterProtectors for the resistance to #DakotaAccessPipeline has been delayed until February, due to a 'massive document dump' by Energy Transfer, Greenpeace told Censored News today.

"Originally, our trial was set for July 29th, 2024 – but due to a massive document dump by Energy Transfer in June, Greenpeace filed a request to have the trial date pushed back. The judge agreed, and moved our trial to February 24, 2025 through March 28, 2025," Lindsay Bigda, communication director, Democracy Resilience Program at Greenpeace USA told Censored News today.
Responding to questions, Greenpeace said #RedWarriorSociety and other water protectors are named in the lawsuit.

"'Red Warrior Society is still named in the lawsuit and last week our lawyers presented arguments for why it shouldn’t be (because it is not the sort of entity that can be sued). The two individuals, #CodyHall and #KrystalTwoBulls, are also still named, but were never served. (Greenpeace entities are the only ones that were served and are actively litigating),' Bigda told Censored News.

"'Very few jurisdictions have made steps to prevent the corporate legal warfare waged in SLAPPs to #SilenceDissent and freedom of expression. The United States has long failed to uphold #HumanRights and #Indigenous leaders have had no choice but to leave their precious homelands; and use international diplomacy to implore all those who will listen for an end to the #extractive industry violence.'

"'Europe played a key role in the #colonization of the planet. Now let's see if she, her people, and jurisdictions, can help in undoing and healing that historic wound. #IndigenousPeoples must continue to engage with Europe to seek justice and #corporate accountability.'

"Standing Rock water protectors have been served subpoenas in the case from Energy Transfer, as it seeks out information. #UnicornRiot fought the subpoena in #Minnesota and won its case to protect its internal media files. However, Energy Transfer has now asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to reconsider its case.

"Greenpeace clarified the reason for the subpoenas that water protectors and Unicorn Riot media were served with.
'Unicorn riot was never named in the lawsuit. They received a third party subpoena, along with many other activist groups and individuals (these folks are not parties to the case; rather, they are third parties that Energy Transfer wants info from in its case against Greenpeace,)' Bigda told Censored News.

"Mercenaries #TigerSwan Spied without a License, Provided Info to Law Enforcement

"Red Warrior Camp was a focus of the mercenaries hired by Energy Transfer at Standing Rock in September of 2016, as revealed in the court-ordered spy documents released.
TigerSwan was found working in North Dakota without a license from 2016 through 2017. As a result, the North Dakota regulatory board ordered that TigerSwan's spy files be released. The Intercept now has over 50,000 of TigerSwan's spy documents at Standing Rock, as a result of a lengthy court battle. Energy Transfer, employer of TigerSwan, fought the release of documents in North Dakota court, but the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the decision to release TigerSwan's documents in 2022.

"The TigerSwan aerial photos included #OcetiSakowin Camp, Red Warrior Camp, and the other camps. The spy documents reveal that a U.S. Border Patrol drone was included in the aerial #surveillance and #infiltrators were placed in the water protector camps at Standing Rock and elsewhere.

"Meanwhile, after Standing Rock, TigerSwan's CEO formed a new company. Syria says they are stealing #Syria's oil. CNN reported about the secretive contract and the new company.

#Palestinians Targeted for Surveillance by TigerSwan at Standing Rock

"As soon as a single #Palestinian activist showed up at an anti-Dakota Access Pipeline camp on the edge of the Standing Rock reservation in 2016, intelligence analysts for the mercenary security firm TigerSwan were on alert," by Alleen Brown, Drilled and co-published with the Center for Media and Democracy."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/energy-transfers-300-million-lawsuit.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #CorporateColonialism #EarthDefenders #CriminalizingDissent #BigOilAndGas #ErikPrince #Blackwater

#Lawsuits Have Become the Weapon of Choice Against #Activists

Legal intimidation suits known as “#SLAPPs” are becoming the norm for private #corporations and #governments trying to silence those who speak out on matters of public interest.

by Katie Redford
July 17, 2023

“On May 31, #Atlanta #SWAT teams with riot gear and battering rams broke down #MarlonKautz’s door. Police dragged Kautz and two colleagues to jail in their pajamas, charging them with #MoneyLaundering and charity fraud.

“Kautz, Adele MacLean, and Savannah Patterson, are volunteer board members of the #NetworkForStrongCommunities Inc., which was incorporated in 2020. Through it, they are able to raise funds for the #AtlantaSolidarityFund (#ASF). Since 2016, the fund has bailed out people arrested in #Georgia while exercising their First Amendment right to protest and helped them find legal help.

“Recently, the ASF has supported Atlanta activists who have been protesting a new $90 million police training center known as '#CopCity,' arguing that it will rob Atlanta of a #VitalGreenLung and increase inequality in surrounding neighborhoods. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, has charged dozens with 'domestic terrorism' for participating in largely peaceful protests.

“Georgia authorities claim that the money laundering charge is based on evidence of a fund transfer to another organization, but they haven’t shared any other details about their allegations. Magistrate Judge Altman, who presided over the bail hearing, described the state’s evidence as 'unimpressive,' reinforcing the defendants’ claims that the arrests are politically, not legally, motivated.

“Shortly after the arrest, Governor Brian Kemp announced that the state would go after everyone involved, and Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted that the funders of the bail and legal defense fund were next. As an executive director at a climate philanthropy who made charitable donations to the ASF for legal defense, I had to wonder: Was my door going to be battered down next?

“Some of the accused may have trespassed or destroyed property, but to charge protesters with 'domestic terrorism' and a legal defense fund with money laundering is a cynical political act that bears no relation to the misdemeanors alleged. Any American committed to democracy should be interested in making sure these charges lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.

“These charges seek to silence and stop opposition to an unpopular development project. They also telegraph a message to others in the state and nationwide: We will not tolerate lawful protest in Georgia. This strategy is known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), which is an intimidation lawsuit, typically used by private corporations against those who speak out on matters of public interest. Various state governments are increasingly deploying this tactic, too.

“SLAPPs don’t usually win in court, but that’s not what they’re intended to do. Instead, they set out to threaten activists and drain the financial resources of social movements. They often unfold as years-long wars of attrition, where corporations and governments with disproportionately large resources grind down the financial, emotional, and legal capacities of activists. The threat of such a suit—typically brought against individuals or groups that confront powerful people or institutions—discourages free speech and association, chilling democracy itself.

“As a lawyer on the front lines of climate justice activism, I witnessed firsthand how a SLAPP was used to weaponize the law against free speech and association. During the mass protests by Indigenous water protectors and environmentalists campaigning against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, SLAPPs were used widely.

“As #StandingRock became a global cause célèbre, the pipeline’s owners brought a $900 million #racketeering case against individuals and #NGOs like #BankTrack and #Greenpeace, alleging a vast global conspiracy to damage the company’s reputation and bottom line through fraud and #defamation.

“A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. But despite its eventual failure in court, the SLAPP tactic served its intended purpose: intimidation. #KrystalTwoBulls, one of the Standing Rock organizers that my organization represented, said that being sued tangled her up, practically and emotionally, in a legal battle that diverted her attention, taking her away from her work on the climate crisis and #Indigenous #LandRights.

“She began to #censor herself; she withdrew from her community and the movement, fearing that conspiracy allegations might extend to anyone she touched. And that, of course, is the point of these suits: to send out the message to either shut up or suffer the consequences.

“The case against #Kautz in #Atlanta similarly seeks to spark fear in activists and donors against supporting #FirstAmendment rights and legal defense. There is reason to believe that prosecutors may also be preparing #RICO charges against anti–Cop City activists, another dangerous use of the legal system to quell #grassroots movements.

“Since Standing Rock, over 20 states have passed '#CriticalInfrastructure' laws, which dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties related to protests at or near #FossilFuel projects. #DomesticTerrorism laws like that in Georgia have a similar intention: to weaponize the legal system against critics and stifle #DissentingVoices.

“I have no doubt that the majority of the domestic terrorism charges around Cop City will fail. But in the process, a political point will have been made, at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech. People protesting to protect the #environment and #climate will have been publicly accused of being harmful to America’s security, and they will have been forced to defend themselves—likely at exorbitant cost—against a 30-year jail sentence. Other potential activists will surely remember these charges when they consider whether it’s worth it to attend a concert, sit-in, or protest.

"The best strategy for stopping SLAPP suits in their tracks, whether they emanate from the private sector or are used by the state, is to keep speaking out, to support defamed activists, and to make the litigants pay a price. About 30 states have introduced legislation that protects against SLAPPs. And last year, #Jami Raskin introduced the #SLAPPProtectionAct of 2022 to #Congress. It must be reintroduced.

“My organization, #EquationCampaign, created a fund to provide lawyers and legal support for people who face this kind of legal retaliation for their environmental and climate work. I’m astonished at the wide range of people who need our help: from #farmers and ranchers to #journalists and #IndigenousActivists. All of them are on the receiving end of David vs. Goliath legal tactics that have long served powerful interests with near-endless resources.

“Absent federal protections, we all must be vigilant in the face of the egregious proliferation of #antiprotest laws and lawsuits.

“#Democracy and the future of this #planet require people to speak up. The law should serve—not silence—those of us who do."

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/slapp-legal-intimidation-activists/

#ForestDefenders #DefendTheForest #StopCopCity #DirectAction #Fascism #RICO #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #NoDAPL #DakotaAccess #StandingWithStandingRock