BISMARCK – The second week of the North Dakota v. United States trial officially concluded, further solidifying the state’s claims that the federal government aided in the evolution of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protest activities and failed to assist local law enforcement. These protests spanned nearly eight months and inflicted more than $38 million in damages on North Dakota.

“The whole reason for the trial is to allow North Dakota to recoup the costs of policing the DAPL protests when the feds failed to act. Even though this trial is not a criminal trial to evaluate innocence or guilt, testimony from federal agents makes their complicity even clearer,” said Cramer.

On Wednesday, the Court heard testimony from former Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, a law enforcement officer who responded to the protests and led field operations on the ground. His testimony revealed the federal government intentionally neglected to assist the state during the protests, claiming that while the state wanted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to ask the activists to leave, its allowance of protesters on USACE land provided a base camp for protestors to conduct illegal activity. Laney expressed how appalling it is the federal government allowed these protests to happen and how “shocking” it was to be “abandoned” by federal law enforcement counterparts, citing his service as a U.S. Marine. He also felt federal officials were against state and local law enforcement and agreeable to protesters in particular an instance with the Department of Justice.

Eric Pederson, a Captain with the State Highway Patrol, and Colonel Michael Gerhart, former Superintendent of the State Highway Patrol, also appeared before the Court. Pederson was among the first to respond at the start of the protests in Morton County. During his testimony, he noted while no federal help was being sent to North Dakota, numerous states sent aid and law enforcement to assist. He also described how it was ironic when law enforcement utilized Turtle Hill to keep a line of defense between protestors and pipeline construction. The Corps asked them to avoid placing too many assets on the hill to prevent environmental damage while protesters caused extensive damage to Corps land without discouragement. Gerhart believed if the Corps had asked state and local law enforcement in August to remove the protesters establishing camp on Corps land, they would have been able to do so. He also described an incident resulting in the only all-state code red which called for law enforcement from across the state.

Thursday also featured testimony from former North Dakota-based FBI Agent Jacob O’Connell, Robert Perry, the 30(b)(6) witness from the FBI, John Ketterling, an engineer with the North Dakota Department of Transportation, and Douglas Walker with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

O’Connell provided testimony indicating former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe recalled an FBI drone unit sent to support law enforcement during the DAPL protests. Sent from Quantico, the unit arrived in Bismarck by a “G5” jet aircraft to assist in monitoring the protestors. That was until the drone unit received a phone call, terminating its mission. O’Connell and Robert Perry stated the decision was made by McCabe.

O’Connell, like other federal officials, attended daily briefings at the command centers hosted by state and local officials where information was shared. While O’Connell testified he was unable to pursue some things they thought were important and not given the resources necessary from his chain of command, he did say the FBI had up to 10 sources or informants in the camps, 15 positions within the FBI dedicated to the DAPL protests, and 50 to 100 employees rotating through those positions. Despite attending the daily briefings, O’Connell only “sometimes” shared information with state and local law enforcement.

“Every day brings up new questions about the role of the federal government in the protest response,” added Cramer. “Why were the FBI drones sent to North Dakota but recalled before they were ever used? Why did the FBI have informants in the camps if it rarely shared the information with local law enforcement? Who was the FBI protecting? What side of justice was the DOJ on?”

Walker described the deployment of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) MQ-9 unmanned aircraft, AS-350 helicopters, and 10 CBP agents to the DAPL protest area to assist law enforcement on the ground.

Former North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple testified before the Court on Friday about the reasonable actions the state was forced to take while dealing with the public safety crisis created by the federal government. Accompanying an August 22 email, Governor Dalrymple testified to telling USACE’s Colonel Henderson it would be a bad idea to grant a special use permit to the protesters on Corps land. He described the confusion emanating from the USACE notifying the public a special use permit was granted, but the conditions of which were never met. Therefore, the permit was never legally in place.

Governor Dalrymple also described how the joint statement from the Departments of Justice, Army, and Interior gave protesters hope they had a chance to stop the pipeline and called into question what was otherwise a well-executed permitting process. He was confused by his conversation with Former Secretary for the Department of the Interior Sally Jewell, who described there were dangerous people in the camps, but failed to maintain the protestors. In wrapping up its questioning of Governor Dalrymple, counsel for the U.S. noted more than $13 million was raised by environmental activists related to the DAPL protests.

Jewell began her testimony on Friday which will resume next week, along with testimony from Governor Doug Burgum.

Click here to read the recap of week one.