PORTLAND, Oregon, June 11, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) ─ Dissident Nevada ranchers Ammon and Ryan Bundy have won a significant legal battle with federal prosecutors as they prepare to go trial ─ along with six other defendants ─ over the armed occupation last January of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns, Ore.
Word of the legal victory came late Friday, as U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown issued a 16-page ruling dismissing the most serious charge facing the defendants, saying that a conspiracy count accusing the group of using and carrying firearms in the course of a “crime of violence” to impede federal workers was too broad, and had to be thrown out.
Defense lawyers had previously argued that federal prosecutors erred when applying the law to the Malheur occupation since it originally pertained to violent crimes such as bank robberies.
It is a key legal win for the Malheur defendants, who face a litany of other conspiracy charges connected to the 41-day standoff in east central Oregon.
The siege came to an end soon after Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot and killed in a roadside confrontation with the FBI and Oregon State Police.
Being found guilty of committing a crime of violence while carrying a firearm could have resulted in a mandatory minimum sentences of five years in federal prison, with a maximum penalty of life. The sentences for such an offense would also run consecutive to any other sentences imposed by the court.
Other counts facing the defendants, although serious, have no mandatory minimums and could run concurrently.
Defense attorneys characterized Friday’s ruling as a significant legal win, greatly reducing the prospects of prolonged prison sentences should their clients be convicted.
Trial for the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is set for Sept. 7 of this year.
Ammon Bundy, 40, and his brother Ryan, 43, still face a long list of charges stemming from the 2014 standoff with federal officials over grazing rights outside the Bundy family’s ranch in Bunkersville, Nev.
They, along with their father, Cliven, 70, and brothers, Dave, 38, and Melvin, 41, have been charged with more than a dozen felonies, including:
- One count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States
- One count of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Four counts of using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence
- Two counts of assault on a federal officers
- Two counts of threatening a federal law enforcement officer
- Two counts of interference with intestate commerce by extortion
- And one count of interstate travel in aid of extortion
Trial in the Bunkerville case is set for February of 2017.
Finicum, 54, was an ardent supporter of Ammon and Lyle Bundy, as well as their father, Cliven, who spent years locked in federal land use battles with the Bureau of Land Management.
Finicum first met the Bundys during their standoff with BLM officials outside Bunkerville, Nev., in April 2014.
In May 2016, Carol Bundy, Cliven Bundy’s wife, told Gephardt Daily she was heartbroken when she learned of Finicum’s death. To hear her comments, please click in the video player below.
Let’s hope the prosecution makes the other charges stick.
Let’s hope the jurors are intelligent enough to realize that the other charges by the prosecution are as bogus as the one the judge just threw out.
Jake, lets hope that jurors have far more intelligence than Gimondi
It wouldn’t be hard, but then I’ve seen some pretty damned dumb juries…
You are an UNinformed FOOL!!!!
Lets hope you get a brain.
You evidently haven’t studied this case else you would understand that this is nothing more than Harry Reid trying to get graft and kickbacks from the Chinese for a proposed Solar Farm and the charges against the Hammonds relate back to Hillary’s selling 20% of the US uranium to a company controlled by Russia. Don’t buy into the lies of the MSM, they work for the one world people.+
Finally!! someone uses both of the conspiracies, Harry Reid and the Chinese and Hillary and the Russians., Problem is the solar deal with China had fallen through long before the stand off at cliven’s ranch took place. As for Hillary for her to sale uranium to Russia numerous government entities would have to sign off on it and the republican controlled congress could have shut the deal down at any time.
But those are no reason to silence a perfectly good conspiracy.
You did forget one thing, Fracking don’t you remember that Obama sold the bundy ranch to big oil so they could frack on it.
Let’s hope brainless idiots like ^^^ aren’t on the jury and they free all these patriots because they need those cells for Hillary, Obutthole, Lynch, the governor, and all the other traitors who conspired to commit the mile-long list of crimes against the Constitution and people that led to this travesty and murder.
My Father-in-law ran nis cattle on BLM land and paid his fees just as my Brother-in-law is doing today, I don’t understand why the Bundys think the law doesn’t apply to them. This nation is built on laws and respect for them, we can’t pick and chose what laws we’ll obey just because we have a gun.
The government picks and chooses what laws they apply and regulations they impose, and they brought their guns.
The Clinton administration went into Clark County, Nevada, and said it was shutting down all cattle ranching on public land to save the desert tortoise, which it did. Cliven Bundy is the last one left. They did the same thing with large areas of Utah. They did the same thing with the lumber industry in the West. I used to work in a sawmill in Lincoln County, Montana. There are no sawmills now in Lincoln County, Montana.
Not sure of your point. ..?
Because you don’t have to!!! Sheep
The Bundy’s had grazing rights since the late 1800s. Because of these rights they did not owe the feds any money.
Check out Dr. Angus McIntosh who covers this subject at length in several videos.
The Bundy’s didn’t come into Nevada until 1964. He owns 160 acres which are not in dispute. Bundy paid his grazing fees to the BLM up until the 1990s.
He claims to have paid his grazing fees to the state of Nevada of course the state of Nevada hasn’t confirmed this.. Actually since these disputed lands are owned by we the people and are managed by the BLM that point is moot.
There is nothing to back up bundy’s claims and if you haven’t noticed Cliven and his family have no problem when it comes to lying.
The Bundy’s did pay their fees, they did everything they were suppose to. The government is the one coming in and saying they didn’t. The Bundy’s deserve to be stood by! They are fighting a corrupt government that decides on their own when the land can be taken from honest hardworking people, so that they can sell it off to the Russians or another country for their own gain. Go Bundy’s!!
So, the Bundy delinquents were lucky to get a judge who’s soft on crime.
No, America is unlucky to have idiots like you as citizens.
LOL. Major victory. Finicum is dead and the rodeo clowns are in prison. There can be no major victory. They already lost.
Pretty sad you’re laughing at the death of a good father, husband, grandpa. Dick!
trying to flee and run over officers…then try to shoot one is violent enough for me….its called felony murder…..the JUDGE is wrong and needs to be dismissed…..there was violence
Ignorance is lacking information … That describes your opinion.
You flipping morons saying throw the book are so ignorant! It’s about land! Stolen land, illegal detention, abuse of power all that wouldn’t have occurred had any of the sacks of excrement on enforcement at the FBI or BLM honored their oaths to protect the constitution. I didn’t forget my oath and it didn’t expire! I’m on freedoms side against tyrants the same as my ancestors, the second largest family in the revolutionary war. They fought the enemy while morons spouted nonsense about British law and throw them in jail. This same admin has seen two Islamic extremist attacks in less than a week and is worried about confiscation weapons and land instead of arresting Imams and confiscation of Mosque assets. To hell with tyranny, America’s backbone has awaken.
Sam, if ignorance smelled, you would stink to high heaven!! Man, SO many damned idiots on this thread, that you make me sick!!!! Can I just yell from the roof tops! ?!? Shi*!!!!
The whole thing is federal government out of control. The federal government has limited rights to own land. The land is owned by the people. Federal land should be under the control of the states.
You’re either all Federal Paid trolls or just pain ignorant.
If you actually took the time to ‘research’ you’d find that the theft of land for foreign interest / sales
by Washington is espionage.
You all should read your Constitution before the refugees make you a minority and you lose it.
Keep hoping ill of ‘good people’.. it will ALL COME BACK haunt your ass..
You simply can’t fix STUPID!
The feds MURDERED Mr. Finicum because he made a bunch of heavily armed agents LOOK LIKE FOOLS. Watch the video again. They shot him in the back with a high powered rifle. Another Ruby Ridge slaughter that will be swept under the rug
All of you who said something against the Bundys and the rest of the protesters better get prepared for what the Fed is about to throw at us . You had better prepare for rampant inflation followed by the world’s worst ever depression . If you were paying any attention to what is going on you would be saying something is wrong and would be asking yourself why is government pulling all this crap, So take a look at things going on around you and ask questions and pay close attention. You only have a short time to prepare don’t run your mouth just LISTEN.
Not a “siege.” Please don’t use the code trigger words they use to brainwash the sheeple. This was a peaceful protest, like the protest against the tyrannical nazi feds who are responsible for all of this land theft by the criminal domestic terrorists Hillary and Dirty Harry Reid, along with the FBLie and other traitor conspirators.These men are good people and true patriots. They did and still do the exact same thing to NATIVE Shoshone ranchers who have been harassed, arrested, persecuted and who the UN has even recognized and advised the US to stop terrorizing these ranchers. You stupid asses libeling and calling for these crimes against the ranchers and natives to continue should be in prison along with the corrupt evil slime who caused these Americans to have to take a stand. I bet you’re the same fake libtards who can’t say “ALLAH” was the one the Muslim democrat terrorist pledged allegiance to, and cheer while illegal alien Mexican La Raza nationalist enemies of this country burn and trample American flags and wave Mexican foreign ones, an act of sedition, while these brave men pledged allegiance to and carried OUR flag to defend this land and our rights. You’re disgusting and should be deported along with the other ones who hate this land so much and commit treason against the Constitution that protects it.
Theft of land …research historical documents for yourself and go even further back. Bundy idiots don’t have more right to it or any of you than do our Native Americans. Take the treaties and other historical legal documents and study them yourself. When any recent immigrants like the Bundys get “their” land back they will need to hand it over to the first Americans. They actually hold legal documents and have more history to the land than the recent immigrants do. And I’m not even a Native American. Learn something about history before you wave the constitution around thinking its “your” land. The Bundy’s are going to be convicted felons. Support our police and BLM officers, otherwise your just a white thug with guns and a cowboy hat. All hat and no cattle for sure!