Hello and super happy to have in
in the studio, I mean your
offices, where here we are at a
conference room, at the headquarters of
Greenpeace USA. With us is Annie Leonard
the executive director of
Greenpeace USA and you can tweet her at
@AnnieLLeonard . . . or
@GreenpeaceUSA. And Thom Wetterer who
is the general counsel, a fancy way of
saying the head lawyer for Greenpeace USA
and it's great to have both of you
with us thanks so much for joining us,
it's great having you.
So Annie, you guys are facing, and I
mean that in the gender-neutral growing
up in Michigan housing y'all are facing
this real substantial threat. It seems a
legal threat you want to tell us about it?
That's right we're facing two huge
lawsuits and and Thom can tell you more
of the detail those lawsuits but I
wanted to first frame them in the
broader context of threat that we're
seeing you know I've been in environment
like this for 30 years and Greenpeace
has been active for now 46 years and
during those times we have fought to
save forests and fought to talk stop
toxic dumping and fought excessive
consumerism and saved Antarctica and did
all these things but right now which
really a threat is our ability to do
that and that may sound dramatic but,
I'm actually deeply worried about this.
We're seeing across the board in this
country a crackdown on activism that is
taking a lot of different forms it's
taking things like vilifying activists
like we saw President Trump talking
about the NFL players and saying they
should be fired and black lives matter
and their aunt of 200 protesters ago
buster there in DC there's a sixty-year
felonies or something
so vilifying criminalizing like that um
silencing dissent there's there's a
number a couple dozen laws right now
across the country that are different
stages of development that would
actually outlaw basic fundamental
organizing I've got gathering groups of
people together sharing information on
Facebook I mean it's it's really scary
what we're seeing it is through these
slap suits - slap as you listeners
probably know it's a strategic lawsuit
against public participation there's two
lawsuits right now
silence and shut us down luckily we're
not really the silence both types
continuing the work and fighting even
louder and I'll hand the mic over to Thom
our lawyer who can talk about the
specific cases right Thom what's yeah I
seem to recall I read about slap suits
in a book I wrote on equal protection
about the Supreme Court in the 14th
amendment back in 2002 and and you can't
hear me and assumes it seems to me that
the yeah I'm generating audio it seems
to me that the slap suits that I was
that that one of the states I think was
California passing the anti slap stood
statue I mean so tell us about statutes
and what's what's going on with us
yeah a number of states have anti slap
statutes but not all of them but slaps
or so we have the two lawsuits as Andy
mentioned and one was filed back in May
of 2016 by resolute Forest Products and
that's Canada's largest logging company
and the most recent one was filed this
past August by energy transfer Partners
and that's the company behind the Dakota
access pipeline and in a nutshell
because they were both filed by the same
law firm Kassovitz Benson and Torrez and
they've represented Donald Trump and I
was gonna say Kassovitz is one of his
lawyers yes my represented him on a
personal basis number of different
matters and they've threatened the New
York Times for instance with his
escapades remarkable so it's it's we're
facing those two very big lawsuits how
much time do we have because there
there's the one that was just flat was
over 200 pages of the complaints we have
six and a half minutes it's okay a lot
of time to go through all the details
but in a nutshell they're coming after
Greenpeace and others other
environmental groups for or advocacy
work and really speaking out on these
issues in the one case about to protect
the boreal forests in Canada right
this latest one about the pull of
Michael little closer the fight at
Standing Rock against Apple and they're
trying to say that and in essence
they've they've structure does a
defamation lawsuit about what we've been
saying but also throwing in Rico which
is racket racketeering laws to say that
we're also kingpins of a grand criminal
enterprise to fight back you can see
some ease in to commit crimes
orchestrate limbs
Rico is the racketeering organization
and or racketeering and influence in
Columbus organizations right you got it
so from late 1970s what's the racket
that they're accusing you of well this
was designed to go against the Gambino
family exactly that's that was the
initial design of it and they are using
they're saying that we everything that
we said about the companies in both
cases are not only defamatory but
they're intentional lies about the
company they're designed to defraud our
donors and they're also designed to
extort their cusThomers with these lies
and then they've thrown in if you if you
read if take the time to read the 225
pages or whatever and the energy
transfer lawsuit they throw in a lot of
other crimes they you know they put down
on paper eco-terrorism and arson and
it's called the kitchen sink strategy of
law is it not it's a variation on that
just throw everything at it and see
what's done paper and then if you
actually read that not only are those
allegations of crimes very vague really
little detail but there's no there's no
real there's no detail at all connecting
Greenpeace and the other defendants to
those crimes because they can't because
we were not involved in those we were
involved in legitimate advocacy work
speaking out on these issues and I will
add in the energy transfer case it's
also wrong about the story of what
really happened in Standing Rock they're
they're they're trying to make us out to
be the puppets the puppeteers would and
that's it's very
it's wrong it's disrespectful the
indigenous people that really were
leading the fight to protect their land
their water and and their there's their
sacred lands our sacred rights and you
know Greenpeace along with many others
we're standing in solidarity with the
indigenous people and really speaking
out about these very real threats Dakota
access pipeline environmentally and also
the poor the other you said us who are
the other groups who are being sued this
is a yeah in the energy transfer case
there's also bang track which is a small
nonprofit in the Netherlands and as
their name implies they do work with
banks financing so they may think you
know send some letters to banks to some
investors just pointing out the risk and
a lot of the at least in in one case
where they're accusing them for long
doing the banks those banks came forward
and said hey you know we made the
decision on our own based on these very
real risks and then they also named
earth first we don't even think that's a
entity but they're also named as
defendants and then in the in the pod of
the alleged criminal enterprise they
throw in people from like Wesley Clark
Democracy Now and a lot of other
environmental groups like Rainforest
Action Network and also earth earth
justice who that that group filed a
lawsuit and on behalf of the Standing
Rock tribe and they've mentioned them as
part of this criminal enterprise for
filing is that is the we're talking with
Thom wetterer who is the general counsel
the head lawyer here for Greenpeace USA
is is the botThom line kind of essence of
all that that they're trying to bankrupt
you I mean litigation can be insanely
expensive and for a small group
even a small slap suit I mean the these
were slap suits were a big deal in the
70s and 80s if you know if you remember
yeah and and as I said I thought a
couple states took care of them but but
the principle thing is not to win in
court it's to destroy you
economically is it not it's it certainly
is and it's not it's not necessarily the
end
I mean they've claimed and posed in the
first suit with the treble-damages of
Rico up to like 300 million in damages
the latest one about 900 million but
it's not so much it's a billion dollars
and well it's not so much even that
because they they're not they don't
really have any merit but it's also the
expenses of litigation the point is to
drag not only to drag the defendants
degree in this case certainly Greenpeace
through the expenses and the time and
the distraction of litigation process
but it's also to send a message to
others to chill others from speaking out
too because you know if they want to
send a message that you'll be sued too
if you dare to speak out and you'll also
have to face the expenses of litigation
and the time that it takes so that's
really the point of these lawsuits
absolutely and just yesterday there was
an amicus brief that was filed in
support of our motion to dismiss in the
energy transfer case by the ACLU and
NRDC and other groups and it talks about
that very point of what did this case
and we these cases what they represent
for First Amendment rights and advocacy
if they're successful and they really
need to be dismissed at the earliest
stages so that they can't just file
whatever in court and then have people
service minutes before we hit a break
here Annie what can people do to support
Greenpeace they can be an activist I'll
tell you that's one thing that the point
of these lawsuits is to squelch activism
at the very time when activism is needed
more than ever so get involved if you
want to join Greenpeace you can text
resist to 877 877 that's text resist to
877 877 and join our Rapid Response Team
and we'll send you great opportunities
to get involved but whether it's
Greenpeace or any other group we have
got to stand up to this corporate power
stand up to these fossil fuel industries
not be signs to not be intimidated and
the best way to do that is with cross
movement unity if we stand together so
cross movement unity being organizing
with other groups absolutely and we're
seeing that now in these cases we have
groups that are working on racial
justice civil rights immigrants rights
reproductive justice all these different
groups coming to us part
because they they respect Greenpeace and
care about us but also they know the
entire model of being a publicly-funded
advocacy organization is what's at risk
here it's like first they came for
Greenpeace and if they silence as who
knows who's next
remarkable Annie Leonard and Thom
wetterer with Greenpeace USA the website
Greenpeace.org/USA