The federal government will pay North Dakota nearly $28 million to settle a lawsuit over the costs of policing massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline nearly a decade ago, the state’s attorney general announced Thursday.
The final settlement agreement's sum is the same amount a federal judge determined last year after trial. The government also agreed to dismiss all of its appeals and to issue a statement that recognizes "that the people of North Dakota, including, centrally, our law enforcement officers, endured repeated acts of intimidation, violence, property destruction, unlawful conduct associated with encampments established on federal land without authorization," Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley told reporters.
