Verdict called ‘unbelievable’ as seven men walk free in standoff at Oregon ranch
WASHINGTON—“I had been telling my client you can count on being convicted,” said Matthew Schindler, a lawyer for one of the men on trial for the armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. “You don’t walk into a federal court and win a case like this. It just doesn’t happen.”
But win they did and even Schindler thought it “off the charts unbelievable,” he told the Seattle Times.
John Horning, executive director of WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement, “I fear this ruling will embolden other militants to use the threat of violence and I worry for the safety of employees at our public land-management agencies.”
“It is entirely possible there will be threats or intimidations from militants that believe such actions are justified by this verdict,” he said.
As Leah Sottile reported for the Washington Post, the trial for the leader of the armed occupation, Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan and five others took six weeks. The verdict — not guilty of federal conspiracy charges — came in five days. While Ammon and Ryan Bundy face charges in Nevada for a 2014 standoff with Bureau of Land Management officers at the family’s ranch, and seven additional defendants face their own trial, the others walked free. While many of Bundy’s 26 codefendants pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to impede federal officers from performing their duties — a charge that has also been used to prosecute extremist left-wingers and Earth First protesters — six others remained steadfast over their innocence.
When news of the verdict was announced, the Post reported, supporters whooped and hollered, waved flags and read from the constitution.
Defendant Shawna Cox issued a call to action: “Wake up, America, and help us restore the constitution. Don’t sleep with your head in the sand.”
The six-week armed occupation of the refuge transfixed the nation in January, as did parts of its bloody conclusion. It began as a protest against the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires and morphed into a protest against the federal government’s ownership of western lands, which Ammon Bundy and his followers contend the U.S. Constitution prohibits.
It ended on Jan. 26, when, after federal agents surrounded the refuge, police stopped and arrested Bundy and some of his followers driving to a community forum. The group’s spokesman, Lavoy Finicum, was shot and killed when he swerved to race past a police roadblock, reached for a weapon, according to authorities, and was shot dead by Oregon state police officers. After that, four remaining occupiers surrendered on Feb. 11.
While theirs was a movement of the West that reawakened long-standing resentment about the federal government’s management of land coveted by private operators, it has broader potential implications that are especially relevant today on the extreme right, which has expanded dramatically since President Barack Obama’s election and grown to even greater prominence by association with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
Collectively, they’ve been referred to as “the modern antigovernment militia movement.”
As the Post’s Kevin Sullivan reported in May, those in the movement call themselves patriots, demanding that the federal government adhere to the constitution as they interpret it and stop what they see as systematic abuse not just of land rights, but gun rights, freedom of speech and other liberties.
Robert Salisbury, attorney for defendant Jeff Banta, told The Associated Press that the acquittals were “stunning.”
“I’m speechless,” he said.