In a letter addressed to Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the monitoring committee stressed the “urgent, serious, and irreparable harm” that the verdict poses to free speech, human rights advocacy, and Indigenous sovereignty.

The farcical oil industry show trial against Greenpeace in North Dakota ended 10 days ago, but the battle over the appeal is just beginning. I outline in the @theguardian.com why Greenpeace is unlikely to pay even one dollar of the $667 million judgment. ⤵️

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire speaks out on the jury’s verdict:

“Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people.”

Read the full statement:

A North Dakota jury ordered Greenpeace to pay $667 million to an oil company for its alleged involvement in the Standing Rock protests.

The lawsuit attempts to “chill First Amendment rights” for environmental and Indigenous activists, says human rights lawyer @sdonziger.bsky.social.

Our fear that this was an illegitimate corporate-funded SLAPP harassment case was confirmed by our observations. We will be issuing a full report documenting these violations and larger flaws in the case in the coming weeks.

Read the Committee's full statement here:

A couple pieces from members of the trial monitoring committee that convened to observe the Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace case. @trialmonitors.bsky.social @paulpaz.bsky.social

www.commondreams.org/opinion/big-...

www.trialmonitors.org/energy-trans...

On March 13th, the jury was presented a video deposition of Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer, in which he contradicts his company's claim that Greenpeace was the lead actor in the protests and the movement against DAPL.

This case constitutes a deception of the court and the public.

The actions taken by the North Dakota courts in this case —retroactively disqualifying a judge while simultaneously upholding his ruling, and allowing a juror with financial ties to the Dakota Access Pipeline to remain — suggest a fundamental breach of the duty of impartiality and fairness.

The Committee has uncovered alarming evidence of jury bias towards the oil industry and against organizations that oppose the use of fossil fuels, and direct and indirect financial ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Read the Committee's latest findings:
www.trialmonitors.org/s/TMStatemen...

Energy Transfer's SLAPP trial against Greenpeace is shrouded in secrecy. Our Trial Monitoring Committee has just filed multiple emergency petitions before the North Dakota Supreme Court demanding a public livestream of the trial proceedings. Visit trialmonitors.org for the latest.

Emergency Petition Filed by Water Protector Legal Collective and Trial Monitors Seeks Livestream Be Opened to Public and Media Outlets #DefendFreeSpeech www.waterprotectorlegal.org/post/petitio...

Jury selection just wrapped in the Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace trial. By my count:

7 of 11 of the jurors have ties to the fossil fuel industry.
3 work at fossil fuel companies
3 have husbands with industry ties
1 has mineral rights

I'll be here all month covering the trial for Drilled.

Greenpeace asked for the trial to be live-streamed, but that motion was denied. You can follow @trialmonitors.bsky.social -- a group of attorneys monitoring the trial in North Dakota -- for more updates.

Energy Transfer’s $300m trial against Greenpeace begins on Monday - a classic SLAPP suit by a major Trump donor which seeks to rewrite the Indigenous-led Standing Rock protests and could have a chilling effect on free speech

By me & @rachelleingang.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...