By Haley Britzky, Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — When President Donald Trump visited Fort Bragg, North Carolina, earlier this month, the commander of the elite Army Delta Force responsible for carrying out the operation to seize Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro made clear there was one man in particular who deserved the highest military honor: Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover.

Slover, an Army special operations pilot, was guiding his MH-47 helicopter to a landing in Caracas when the aircraft was “immediately” fired upon by multiple machine guns at close range, according to the citation that would eventually accompany that honor. The cockpit was hit by 15 armor-piercing rounds, four of which hit Slover in the leg.

Slover maintained control of the helicopter to ensure the safety of the Special Forces soldiers on board as they exited the aircraft to complete the mission.

The commander told Trump that Slover should receive the Medal of Honor for his actions, according to an official familiar with the matter. Trump was quickly convinced and signaled to the team he was going to do just that, two senior White House officials told CNN.

Less than two weeks later, Slover, who sustained serious injuries during the operation, stood stoically during the State of the Union address as the recognizable light blue ribbon of the Medal of Honor was secured around his neck, the medal gently placed in the center of the tie on his dress uniform.

The speed at which the Medal of Honor was approved is highly unusual. Approval for the award can take years due to the intensely bureaucratic process for consideration. There is also sometimes dispute about whether or not to award the medal, a senior White House official said, and in this case, “the president made the decision and the entire team worked together to execute.”

The award was expedited at the direction of Trump, who was eager to make the announcement at the State of the Union — an address his team had carefully crafted to include inspiring stories to engage the audience, the officials said.

Two sources familiar with the situation said that all official paperwork and processes were followed for Slover’s medal, but at a much faster timeline, helped along by military leaders’ willingness to support it and make the recommendations in-person. One of the sources acknowledged the process was “blazing fast” but said verbal approvals and briefings pushed things along as the paperwork caught up. An Army spokesperson said Friday that the service is “incredibly proud” of Slover and also said that “all statutory requirements” for the award were followed.

A Trump official tasked with expediting the process for Slover worked furiously in the days following the president’s visit to Fort Bragg to rush the paperwork through, the senior White House officials said. The camera-ready moment in which Trump called for the medal to be given to Slover was written into the first draft of his speech, one of the officials said. However, it wasn’t clear until Tuesday, the day Trump was delivering his address, whether the White House could complete the process in time.

“The White House and the Pentagon were proud to work expeditiously at the President’s direction to ensure this great American hero received the award he most certainly deserves,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN.

Still, Slover had to agree to be featured in such a public event. The physical toll of the operation to seize Maduro has been significant; Trump said during the address that Slover was hit “very badly in the leg and hip” by armor-piercing rounds that “shred(ded) his leg.” While Slover stood tall while he was being honored, when Trump’s speech began moving on, Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, appeared to lean forward and help Slover sit back into a wheelchair sitting behind him

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SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – On Friday, Judge Donna Geck upheld an injunction imposed in July of last year preventing the restart of onshore pipelines despite the intervention of federal regulators.

"After considering all of the arguments, facts, and circumstances presented in Sable's motion for reconsideration, the court does not find the evidence of subsequent events involving PHMSA [the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration] and federal appellate proceedings are sufficient to reconsider its ruling on the preliminary injunction or to modify or dissolve the preliminary injunction," wrote Judge Donna Geck in a tentative ruling issued Thursday. "The motion will therefore be denied."

Under the injunction, Sable Offshore, the company working to restart oil production locally since purchasing oil production infrastructure from ExxonMobil in February of 2024, must notify the court and plaintiffs when it receives all the approvals necessary to restart the use of onshore pipelines at least ten court days before starting.

That court-ordered window ensures that the Houston-based energy company would be subject to lawsuits from interested parties even after fulfilling all the needed approvals for a restart.

"The court had excellent reasons for granting this injunction in the first place, and I’m relieved that we’ll still have that safeguard," said Julie Teel Simmonds, Senior Counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiff's in Friday's proceedings. "This oil pipeline has such a checkered history that it shouldn’t be restarted without the utmost scrutiny. If Sable says a restart is coming, we’ll absolutely use the 10 days required by the injunction to make sure all laws have been followed to keep wildlife and the coast safe."

Oversight of any plans to restart onshore pipelines needed to transport oil from the Las Flores Canyon Facility on the Gaviota Coast, which receives and processes oil from offshore platforms, has been assigned to the Office of State Fire Marshal since the Refugio Oil Spill of 2015.

"Ever since a catastrophic oil spill at Refugio Beach in 2015 led to a court-ordered consent decree, CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal has been responsible for overseeing the repair of the lines that caused the spill, which are now operated by Sable Offshore Corp in Santa Barbara County," shared Daniel Villaseñor with the California Natural Resources Agency.

The pipeline that ruptured back in 2015, formerly known as Line 901 and now known as Line CA-324, has remained dormant since it ruptured in May of 2015, spilling an estimated 450,000 gallons of crude oil over 150 miles of California coastline and destroying thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.

"While Sable now argues that it is not a party to the proceedings in which the Federal Consent Decree was entered, Sable's authority to operate the Las Flores Pipelines deriv

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – On Friday, Judge Donna Geck upheld an injunction imposed in July of last year preventing the restart of onshore pipelines despite the intervention of federal regulators.

"After considering all of the arguments, facts, and circumstances presented in Sable's motion for reconsideration, the court does not find the evidence of subsequent events involving PHMSA [the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration] and federal appellate proceedings are sufficient to reconsider its ruling on the preliminary injunction or to modify or dissolve the preliminary injunction," wrote Judge Donna Geck in a tentative ruling issued Thursday. "The motion will therefore be denied."

Under the injunction, Sable Offshore, the company working to restart oil production locally since purchasing oil production infrastructure from ExxonMobil in February of 2024, must notify the court and involved plaintiffs when it receives all the approvals necessary to restart the use of onshore pipelines at least ten court days before starting.

That court-ordered window ensures that the Houston-based energy company would be subject to lawsuits from interested parties even after fulfilling all the needed approvals for a restart.

"The court had excellent reasons for granting this injunction in the first place, and I’m relieved that we’ll still have that safeguard," said Julie Teel Simmonds, Senior Counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiff's in Friday's proceedings. "This oil pipeline has such a checkered history that it shouldn’t be restarted without the utmost scrutiny. If Sable says a restart is coming, we’ll absolutely use the 10 days required by the injunction to make sure all laws have been followed to keep wildlife and the coast safe."

Oversight of any plans to restart onshore pipelines needed to transport oil from the Las Flores Canyon Facility on the Gaviota Coast, which receives and processes oil from offshore platforms, has been assigned to the Office of State Fire Marshal since the Refugio Oil Spill of 2015.

"Ever since a catastrophic oil spill at Refugio Beach in 2015 led to a court-ordered consent decree, CAL FIRE - Office of the State Fire Marshal has been responsible for overseeing the repair of the lines that caused the spill, which are now operated by Sable Offshore Corp in Santa Barbara County," shared Daniel Villaseñor with the California Natural Resources Agency.

The pipeline that ruptured back in 2015, formerly known as Line 901 and now known as Line CA-324, has remained dormant since its rupture in May of 2015, spilling an estimated 450,000 gallons of crude oil over 150 miles of California coastline and destroying thousands of acres of shoreline habitats.

"While Sable now argues that it is not a party to

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