Apollonian
Guest Columnist
Oregon standoff: Cliven Bundy faces six federal charges over 2014 confrontation
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/11/cliven-bundy-arrested-charges-oregon-milita-standoff
Cliven Bundy’s arrest is a stunning turn in the 41-day Oregon militia standoff, and a two-decades-long dispute over illegal grazing of cattle on federal land
Cliven Bundy is accused of a string of offenses, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the US. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Julia Carrie Wong and Sam Levin in San Francisco and Matthew O Berger in Portland
Thursday 11 February 2016 17.07 EST Last modified on Thursday 11 February 2016 20.14 EST
Cliven Bundy, the father of Malheur national wildlife refuge occupiers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, has been charged with six federal crimes stemming from his confrontation with the federal government in 2014.
The charges, filed on the same day that the final four occupiers of Malheur surrendered to law enforcement officials and one day after his arrest in Portland, Oregon, marked a stunning turn in a two-decades-long dispute over Bundy’s illegal grazing of cattle on federal land.
The 69-year-old Nevada rancher shuffled into US District Court looking noticeably tired. Bundy had spent Wednesday night in the same downtown Portland jail in which his sons Ammon and Ryan have been held since being arrested by FBI agents on 26 January. He was arrested in Portland after flying in from Nevada, en route to the refuge.
Bundy had remained free for nearly two years after he engaged in an armed standoff with the federal government, angering many. The public interest group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has tried to put pressure on the US attorney to file charges in the case in order to dissuade other anti-government activists from engaging in similar activities.
He is accused of conspiracy to commit an offense against the US; assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon; use and carry of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence; interference with commerce by extortion; obstruction of the administration of justice; and aiding and abetting.
Like his sons and their compatriots in their initial hearings a few weeks earlier, the elder Bundy wore a light blue prison jumpsuit with faded pink undershirt, sandals and a chain around his ankles. He sat down and put on a pair of glasses and, for more than 30 minutes, he nodded along as Ruben Iñiguez, an attorney from the federal public defenders’ office, leafed through the 32-page indictment and spoke in the defendant’s ear.
Just after 2pm, Judge Janice Stewart emerged and, just ten minutes later, the hearing was over.
In those ten minutes, Stewart set the dates for a bail hearing on Tuesday at 1.30 pm and a preliminary hearing on Friday 19 February.
The judge also strongly urged the outspoken Bundy not talk about the case with anyone aside from his attorney, as anything said outside the protection of attorney-client privileges “can be used against you by the government.” Asked whether he understood, Bundy said, in a soft and gravelly voice, “yes.” It was the only word he said in court.
The court also learned from public defender Ruben Iñiguez that Bundy’s blood pressure is “quite high, dangerously so” — 188 over 122. Iñiguez said his client had prescription medicine in a carry-on bag and asked the court to locate and return the medications to Bundy.
But Judge Janice Stewart said the normal protocol was for the defendant to be checked out by a physician in prison and obtain any necessary medication through them. Iñiguez countered that the medicines in the bag would speed up the prescription-writing process, but Stewart said she would stick with the protocol.
Stewart also said the court would need to determine whether he had the finances to pay for his own attorney or be allowed to continue with a court-appointed one.
Bundy had left Nevada on Wednesday evening to travel to Oregon after learning that the FBI was moving to end the Malheur occupation. Though his son Ammon had pleaded with the final standouts to surrender, Cliven Bundy remained intransigent, telling the Guardian that he was “taking control of things”.
“I don’t know whether I’ll be a negotiator or maybe a demander,” he told the Guardian by phone on Wednesday night, as he prepared to travel to Oregon. “I hope I save some lives, for one thing.”
Briana Bundy, wife of Cliven’s son Mel Bundy, criticized federal prosecutors for going after the family patriarch for a standoff that happened in 2014. “If they have something to charge him with, why didn’t they do it two years ago?” she said, adding of the accusations. “They are all bogus, and it’s nonsense.”
Briana said the government’s case was weak. “It’s their job to prove guilt, not our job to prove innocence.” The family was trying to figure out what their next step would be, Briana continued. “We’re stressed out and we have a lot of things to get accomplished,” she said, adding: “We’re planning on staying the course.”
Cliven Bundy’s dispute with the federal government dates to 1993, when Bundy began to graze his cattle on public land while “knowingly refus[ing]” to pay fees or obtain the proper permits, according to the complaint. The fees were reportedly as low as $1.35 per cow per month.
In 1998, a federal court ordered Bundy to remove his cattle and began levying fines against him, but the situation did not come to a head until more than a decade later, when the US Bureau of Land Management made plans to seize 1,000 of Bundy’s cattle.
According to the complaint, the BLM made arrangements for the cattle to be impounded and auctioned, but were stymied when Bundy conspired to “impede, obstruct and interfere” with the operation.
That interference played out on national television, as Bundy recruited hundreds of armed sympathizers to descend on the ranch and protect the cattle from impoundment. The complaint describes the standoff as “a massive armed assault against federal law enforcement officers in and around Bunkerville, Nevada, in order to extort the officers” into releasing 400 seized cattle.
The complaint refers specifically to the events of 12 April 2014, when Bundy allegedly directed his supporters in a planned assault on the corralled cattle, describing how the group divided in two in order to distract law enforcement agents in one area while sending another group to attack law enforcement’s “most vulnerable point”.
The group allegedly “took tactically superior positions on high ground”, with some gunmen assuming “sniper positions behind concrete barriers, their assault rifles aimed directly at officers below”. The group is also accused of using unarmed protesters as “human shields” to hide the activity of armed protesters.
The tactics of Bundy’s followers were successful. Law enforcement officers found themselves outnumbered and outmatched, and abandoned the cattle.
The complaint details how Bundy and four unnamed co-conspirators worked together to recruit the supporters who massed on the Bundy ranch in 2014, using the internet to disseminate messages to a network of like-minded people, some of which were false and designed to inflame the passions of rightwing activists.
On 8 April 2014, for example, Bundy allegedly broadcast messages on the internet stating that the federal government had surrounded his house with snipers and officers armed with assault rifles.
Though law enforcement retreated after the 12 April standoff, the complaint alleges that criminal activity in the form of employing bodyguards and thwarting the impoundment of the cattle continued up until Bundy’s arrest and charge.
Baily Logue, Cliven’s 24-year-old daugher, told the Guardian: “Anytime anyone speaks out against the federal government, we are taken down, put into jail and detained … But we’re not backing down, and this is not going to make us any weaker at all. This is only making us stronger.”
Last edited:
