Judge won’t allow Trump to be added to pipeline lawsuit

A judge says he’s inclined to let a group of individual members of American Indian tribes join a lawsuit over the Dakota Access oil pipeline, but only if they agree not to add President Donald Trump as a defendant.

Any action against the president whose administration pushed through the pipeline’s completion would need to come in a separate lawsuit, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said. The group’s lead attorney said that’s still a possibility. The pipeline began shipping oil to customers on June 1.

The White House said the administration is confident that federal analysis of the pipeline’s environmental impact “is legally sound.”

Four Sioux tribes in the Dakotas are suing Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which permitted the $3.8 billion project to move North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois where it can be shipped to Gulf Coast refineries. The tribes fear environmental and cultural harm, which ETP denies.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., has lingered nearly a year. In late February, 13 members of the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River and Oglala Sioux tribes asked to join as individual plaintiffs. They maintain they might be better suited than the tribes as a whole to make some claims against the pipeline because they’re personally affected. Boasberg ruled this week that the Corps didn’t adequately consider how an oil spill might affect tribal fishing and hunting rights, or whether it might disproportionately affect the tribal community.

“Ultimately, this case is about whether individual Native American people are to be subjected to environmental harm,” plaintiffs’ attorney Bruce Afran said.

ETP attorneys have argued there’s no evidence the individual tribe members will be “substantially burdened” by the pipeline. The Corps also has objected to their intervention, saying their interests are adequately represented by the tribes and that their claims against Trump “create an additional layer of complexity that is likely to cause undue delay.”

The group wants to add Trump as a defendant because he pushed through completion of the long-stalled project shortly after taking office in January. The Corps had announced further environmental study of the pipeline but canceled those plans after Trump in an executive action in January urged completion of the project.

Boasberg said Wednesday he’ll let the group intervene as long as it keeps the scope of its arguments to those being argued by the full tribes. Any additional claims, or adding Trump as a defendant, “would unduly expand the scope of the case,” he said.

Boasberg gave the group until Tuesday to respond. Afran told The Associated Press that the group will comply with the order. He said no decision has been made on whether to sue Trump separately.

Walmart is buying online men’s clothing retailer Bonobos for $310 million in cash, showing that its appetite for hip clothing brands shows no sign of abating as it looks for ways to gain on Amazon.

It’s a sign of the aggressive direction Walmart is taking since buying Jet.com last year and keeping that company’s founder as head of its online division. Walmart has since bought clothing seller ModCloth, footwear retailer ShoeBuy.com and outdoor gear seller Moosejaw as it focuses on brands appealing to younger shoppers.

Bonobos, which started out selling pants online, caters to male shoppers looking for help putting together a wardrobe.

Targeting Bonobos is a good move for Walmart as it tries to compete with Amazon, which has been quickly expanding its clothing business, internet consultant Sucharita MulpuruKodal said.

“If you roll up enough of these online startups, you create a meaningful share” of business, she said. She noted that Walmart can learn from these millennial customers.

While Walmart keeps trying to compete against Amazon by pushing harder into online, Amazon announced a bold move into brick-and-mortar stores Friday by saying it would buy Whole Foods in a deal valued at about $13.7 billion.

The Bonobos deal, announced Friday, is expected to close at the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter of this fiscal year. Bonobos CEO and founder Andy Dunn will report to Marc Lore, the CEO of Walmart’s U.S. online operations.

“Adding innovators like Andy will continue to help us shape the future of Walmart,” Lore said. “They’ve created an amazing product and customer experience, and that will not change.”

Bonobos started online but like many similar startups, has also opened some showrooms. Customers at the Guideshops can try on pants, shirts, ties, belts and jackets with suggestions from stylists. They can order online at the store and have their clothes delivered to their homes or office a few days later. The company now operates more than 30 stores in cities like Chicago, New York and Atlanta, and plans to have 100 by 2020. For Bonobos, the acquisition by Walmart will help expand its business.

Still, Mulpuru-Kodal said, it is a bit of “a game of Monopoly.”

“Walmart has huge coffers. Even if one of them shows promise, it pays for the rest,” she said.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart’s online business is gaining momentum, but remains a distant second to Amazon. It increased 63 percent in the fiscal first quarter, up from 29 percent in the previous period. That marked the fourth straight quarter of gains.