Bundy family of Nevada occupy Oregon Wildlife Refuge headquarters

Finally a conviction against these horrible people fronting for the Koch network of billionaires intent on stealing our Federal lands.

Once again, a jury rules in favor of Bundy supporters in their 2014 standoff with federal agents | Los Angeles Times

Quote:

For the second time this year, the federal government tried and failed to convict four men who joined the high-profile Bundy family in its 2014 standoff with federal agents in a dispute over grazing fees for cattle.

A Las Vegas jury acquitted two of the four men on trial, Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart, on all 10 charges against them.

The jury found the other two defendants, Scott Drexler and Eric Parker, not guilty on most charges, but it could not reach verdicts on four charges against Parker and two charges against Drexler. The government has not said whether it plans to retry them.

The verdicts were a remarkable setback for the government in its attempts to prosecute Cliven Bundy, his family and several of their supporters. The Bundys have become a powerful symbol of what some people on the right view as federal government overreach in controlling public lands.

In October, a jury acquitted Ammon Bundy and his followers who were embroiled in a 41-day armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The proceeding that ended Tuesday was retrial of a case that was originally tried in April but ended in a hung jury.

Each of the four defendants faced multiple felony charges including conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, weapon possession, assault and threatening federal officers stemming from the 2014 standoff near the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev.

Guilty verdicts could have resulted in decades-long prison sentences. After 20 days of testimony, the jury deliberated for four days before reaching its verdicts.

A detention hearing for Parker and Drexler is scheduled for Wednesday. Both men in the meantime have been transferred to a halfway house until the hearing.

Drexler’s lawyer, Todd Leventhal, said his client was happy with Tuesday’s news and hopes to move back to Idaho to live with relatives.

“We weren’t allowed to bring in any witnesses during the trial,” Leventhal said on Tuesday. “Now we have to wait and see what the government will do and if they plan to retry my client.”

Continued at http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nevada-bundy-verdict-20170822-story.html

Cannot help making a connection with the guy in Vice's Charlottesville video ordering the authorities to get his people out of here, or he would do it himself with 200 armed buddies.

Agreed. Also Allen Armentrout who showed up at Lee Park with a rifle and a pistol after Heather Heyer was murdered. Outraged citizens confronted Armentrout with angry shouts.

The police officer who escorted Armentrout out of the park had him place his rifle in the trunk but allowed him keep his pistol as he sat beside the officer up front. The cops treated Armentrout like an honored gentleman. Looks like the far right have safepointed the cops in a lot of communities.

Bundy Ranch standoff defendants to be retried for third time

O. Scott Drexler and Eric Parker, both of Idaho, were released from prison Tuesday night after a jury acquitted them of conspiracy and extortion, which were the key elements of the government's case. But they found out Wednesday they have been ordered back to court Sept. 25 to face the charges on which the jury deadlocked.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news...nch-standoff-defendants-third-time/594842001/

America stop harrasing that retarded boy !!!

Nevada standoff trial postponed as judge orders search for surveillance video

Quote:

A federal judge Tuesday delayed opening statements in the trial of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy amid defense allegations that there may be recorded video related to the 2014 standoff at his Bunkerville ranch that the government failed to turn.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro pushed opening statements back to Nov. 14 to give prosecutors time to track down the surveillance footage — though she agreed it was unclear whether the equipment had, in fact, recorded anything at all.

It was yet another twist in a trial that has captivated Americans who view the Bundy trial as a fight against federal government overreach on public lands and infringement on the right to protest.

Continued at http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-nevada-bundy-trial-20171107-story.html

The Government Has Screwed Up the Bundy Case Even Worse Than We Realized | Mother Jones

A federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Cliven Bundy’s armed standoff due to government misconduct.

Quote:

US District Court Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial on Wednesday in the prosecution of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan, and Montana militiaman Ryan Payne, saying that the government had willfully withheld evidence from defense lawyers that was potentially helpful to their case, in violation of legal rules. Navarro set a new trial date of February 26, but that could change at a hearing scheduled for January if she decides the government’s conduct is so egregious that the charges should be dismissed entirely.

Continued at http://www.motherjones.com/politics...p-the-bundy-case-even-worse-than-we-realized/

Mistrial declared in Cliven Bundy standoff case | OregonLive.com

Quote:

A federal judge Wednesday declared a mistrial in the prosecution of Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a co-defendant, citing the government's "willful'' failure to turn over multiple documents that could help the defense fight conspiracy and assault charges in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff.

"The court does regrettably believe a mistrial in this case is the most suitable and only remedy,'' U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro declared, issuing her ruling from the bench before a packed courtroom.

The judge listed six documents or types of evidence that she said prosecutors willfully, not inadvertently, failed to turn over before trial: information about the presence of an FBI surveillance camera on a hill overlooking the Bundy Ranch, documents about Bureau of Land Management snipers outside the Bundy Ranch, an FBI log with entries about snipers on standby, maps, threat assessments and an internal affairs documents involving lead federal land special agent Dan Love.

Prosecutors belittled Ryan Bundy's pretrial motion for information on the "mysterious'' devices outside the family ranch in 2014 as "fantastical,'' and a "fishing expedition,'' the judge noted. The government willfully withheld a March 28, 2014 law enforcement operation order and an FBI report that showed there was an FBI camera trained on the Bundy home for surveillance.

The judge also found prosecutors withheld documents that identified U.S. Bureau of Land Management snipers outside the ranch, and noted "the government's strong insistence at prior trial that there were no snipers,'' Navarro said.

The judge also cited an FBI log with entries that said "snipers were inserted'' and on standby outside the Bundy home, at least four threat assessments that indicated the Bundys likely wouldn't use violence and that the Bureau of Land Management was antagonizing the family, and an internal affairs document on the lead BLM agent Dan Love that said there were no documented injuries to desert tortoises by cattle grazing on the federal land.

The mistrial dealt a significant setback to federal prosecutors, yet they may be able to retry the defendants. Both sides were instructed to submit legal briefs by Dec. 29 on whether the government should be allowed to pursue a new trial.

The judge indicated she'd likely make a future ruling on whether the case should be a mistrial with prejudice, meaning no future trial would be held.

The Bundys and their supporters called the ruling a partial victory. They had sought a full dismissal of the case, and will continue to do so.

Continued at http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2017/12/mistrial_declared_in_cliven_bu.html

This is the earlier Nevada standoff, not the Oregon one:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...standoff-in-nevada-land-dispute-idUSKBN1EX218

That's fucked up.

The sheriff of LV IS AVOIDING THIS GUY LIKE THE PLAGUE.

Https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...andoff-feds-says-he-ll-continue-ranch-n836621

The Religious Ideology Driving the Bundy Brothers

It's not just a hatred of the federal government that motivates the scofflaws—it's their deeply held faith


In January 2016, Cliven Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan—acting on what they said was divine inspiration—laid siege to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, in Harney County, Oregon. Writer James Pogue drove over Mount Hood and arrived on the second full day of the standoff, spending most of the next weeks holed up with the leaders in the building they commandeered as a headquarters. In this excerpt from Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West (Henry Holt, $28), Pogue meets Ammon for the first time as the eldest Bundy son laid out the little-discussed Mormon philosophy that guides so much of the modern anti-public lands movement.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2308761/religious-ideology-driving-bundy-brothers

Trump pardons ranchers whose case sparked Bundy takeover of Oregon refuge

By Elizabeth Landers, CNN, July 10, 2018

Quote:

President Donald Trump pardoned two men on Tuesday who were involved in a dispute with federal authorities over federal land usage that sparked the takeover of a wildlife refuge in Oregon.

Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond were granted executive grants of clemency by Trump, according to a White House statement. The father-son duo are cattle ranchers and were convicted in 2012 of committing arson on federal lands in Oregon.

"Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency," the statement read.

The Trump White House took aim at the Obama administration as well, adding that it filed an "overzealous appeal" that led to the two men's five-year prison sentence: "This was unjust."

Dwight Hammond has served approximately three years in prison, and his son Steven has served four years, according to the White House.

The Hammonds said they started a fire on their property in 2001 to protect it from wildfires and reduce the growth of invasive plants, but that the fire got out of hand, CNN affiliate KTVZ reported. Prosecutors said in 2016 they set fires to cover up evidence of poaching.

"The jury convicted both of the Hammonds of using fire to destroy federal property for a 2001 arson known as the Hardie-Hammond fire, located in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area," Department of Justice said in a statement in January 2016.

The perceived unjust sentence for the Hammonds inspired Ammon Bundy to lead an armed standoff in early 2016, when a group of armed men broke into the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

At the time, Bundy told CNN that he wanted the federal government to relinquish control of the wildlife refuge so "people can reclaim their resources." He also wanted an easier sentence for Dwight and Steven Hammond, who had both previously rejected his assistance.

The occupation resulted in the death of one man, LaVoy Fincicum, who was shot and killed by Oregon State Police troopers when he drove his truck at a roadblock while trying to escape the refuge. Bundy was also arrested in a different vehicle that peacefully surrendered to police.

The standoff lasted 41 days until the last holdout inside the refuge surrendered in February 2016.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10/politics/hammonds-trump-pardon/

Ammon Bundy Is Quitting The Militia Movement After Breaking With Trump On Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

"The vast majority seemed to hang on to what seemed like hate, and fear, and almost warmongering, and I don't want to associate myself with warmongers."

By Salvador Hernandez, BuzzFeed News, December 6, 2018

Quote:

For more than six years Ammon Bundy and his family amassed hundreds of followers and supporters willing to pick up a gun at a moment's notice and rally to their side for a confrontation with the federal government.

Bundy led two armed standoffs against the feds in Nevada and Oregon, and his family quickly became the face of a growing militia movement, bringing a national spotlight to armed groups eager for a conflict with what they believed to be an overreaching government.

The militia groups, with members holding a mix of right-wing, anti-government, and conspiratorial views, had been growing since 2008 thanks to their heavy use of social media and binding opposition to then-president Barack Obama. The standoffs in 2014 and 2016 made the Bundy family, including Ammon, leading figures in the movement.

So when he logged on to Facebook last week to speak to his supporters in defense of the caravan of Central American migrants gathered at the southern border, a frequent target of President Trump, he figured he'd face some criticism.

"To group them all up like, frankly, our president has done — you know, trying to speak respectfully — but he has basically called them all criminals and said they're not coming in here," Bundy said in the video. "What about individuals, those who have come for reasons of need for their families, you know, the fathers and mothers and children that come here and were willing to go through the process to apply for asylum so they can come into this country and benefit from not having to be oppressed continually?"

Bundy went on, dispelling conspiracy theories that billionaire George Soros was behind the caravan or that terrorists were using the group to sneak into the US.

But the backlash from his supporters was immediate, with many repudiating Bundy for his views. Followers who had traveled to his father's ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014 during an armed standoff with federal agents over unpaid cattle grazing fees said they regretted doing so. Others claimed Bundy was being paid by left-wing "globalists" to switch sides. Some told him they wished he was dead, or that militias had never supported his family.

Bundy was shocked by the swift reaction.

"I expected to get a decent amount of pushback, but I also believed that I could explain to them why I'd taken those positions and why," he told BuzzFeed News. "But you know, I've always had these kinds of thoughts that people were not really listening to the principles of things, that they had aligned with me for some other reasons, and that some of those [reasons] are good and some of those might not be, but this last video kind of confirmed that."

So on Tuesday, Bundy shut down his social media accounts and said he was stepping away from the public light and the "patriot groups" that had gained national attention while supporting the Nevada ranching family. The decision to quit wasn't an easy one, Bundy said, but the movement's unforgiving opposition to the migrant caravan and what he called a dangerous and blinding support of President Trump left him with no choice.

"It's like being in a room full of people in here, trying to teach, and no one is listening," he said. "The vast majority seemed to hang on to what seemed like hate, and fear, and almost warmongering, and I don't want to associate myself with warmongers."

Bundy's sudden exit marks a defining moment in the so-called "patriot movement," one his family helped bolster over the past four years. Members of militia groups would talk about being part of the Bundy standoffs as a point of pride, a sort of street cred for militia.

While Bundy said he supports many of Trump's policies and is grateful for his presidential pardon of the ranchers at the center of the 2016 standoff in Oregon, he disagrees with his depiction of immigrants at the border and his approach to governing.

Continued at https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...y-helped-bolster-the-militia-movement-now-hes

How “Woke Ammon Bundy” Became the Year’s Most Surprising Resistance Figure

The split between Bundy and his followers exposes the complicated divisions within the America militia movement.

By Ruth Graham, Slate, December 10, 2018

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/woke-ammon-bundy-unlikely-resistance-figure.html