The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has filed a fresh legal challenge to the Dakota Access pipeline, asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to block an easement allowing construction on the final leg of the $3.8 billion project. Tuesday’s lawsuit came a day after a judge threw out a separate legal challenge calling for a temporary restraining order against construction. The legal fight came as a top executive with the company building the Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday compared his opponents to terrorists. In a written statement submitted to Congress, Energy Transfer Partners Executive Vice President Joey Mahmoud accused water protectors of violence and blasted them for shutting down pipeline pumping stations. Mahmoud wrote, “Had these actions been undertaken by foreign nationals, they could only be described as acts of terrorism.”