A North Dakota judge has said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages estimated at $345 million — a move that could potentially bankrupt the environmental group. Last year, a jury sided with Energy Transfer, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, in a closely watched trial and lawsuit by the Texas-based pipeline company, which accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the Indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock between 2016 and ’17. Greenpeace argued the lawsuit was part of a conspicuous attempt by corporations to destroy the right to free speech. Last March, Democracy Now! spoke to Deepa Padmanabha, senior legal adviser for Greenpeace USA.

Deepa Padmanabha: “What’s really important to know is that this case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of Indigenous leadership, of Indigenous resistance, but this case is also so much bigger than just Greenpeace. It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful protest.”

Judge James Gion previously cut the jury award nearly in half, from more than $670 million to about $345 million. Greenpeace could appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court.