Judge announces Trump won't be defendant in pipeline lawsuit

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump won't be added as a defendant in a lawsuit over the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline that he pushed to completion, a federal judge announced as one of the conditions of allowing a group of Sioux tribal members to intervene in the case.

The order Monday by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg eliminates a possible complication to a case that has lingered almost a year. American Indian and environmental activists plan a rally Wednesday outside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., as Judge Boasberg oversees an unrelated hearing in the case.

The request to add Trump as a defendant came from a group of 13 Sioux tribal members in the Dakotas. They asked to join the lawsuit filed last July by their tribes over the $3.8 billion pipeline that began shipping North Dakota oil to Illinois this month.

The tribal members argue they're better suited as individuals to make some claims against the pipeline because they say they're personally affected by the project.

They allege Trump illegally interfered shortly after he took office by urging completion of the long-stalled project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had announced further environmental study of the pipeline but canceled those plans after Trump issued the executive action in January.

The White House told The Associated Press last week that the administration is confident the federal analysis of the pipeline's environmental impacts is legally sound.