White House pardons Oregon cattle ranchers
Supporters of Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond hailed the move as a shift in how the federal government approaches the West.
The White House on Tuesday pardoned father-and-son cattle ranchers in southeastern Oregon who were sentenced to serve prison time on two separate occasions for the same charges of arson on public lands, a move their supporters hailed as a shift in how the federal government approaches the West.
The decision to set aside the convictions of Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond could have major implications for how federal officials enforce rules on grazing and other activities on tens of millions of acres owned by taxpayers. The two men’s return to prison helped spark the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early 2016. Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a rancher who acted as the protesters’ spokesman, was killed by a state trooper during an encounter between the armed occupation group and law enforcement - a shooting that led to charges against an FBI special agent.
In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said an “overzealous appeal” of the Hammonds’ original sentences during the Obama administration, which sent them back to prison, was “unjust.”
“The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West,” Sanders said, adding: “Justice is overdue.”
The government won an appeal over the Hammonds’ sentences in 2015, and the two men were resentenced to serve out the remaining years of a five-year minimum.
Their convictions have drawn sharp rebukes from the local community amid allegations that the family was aggressively prosecuted using anti-terrorism statutes because they were outspoken about public land use in rural Oregon.
Jerome Rosa, president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said in an interview Tuesday that the pardons “send a signal that the new administration really understands the significance and the importance of what the ranching community provides for these Western landscapes.”
Rosa had raised the Hammonds’ case with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke — who oversees the Bureau of Land Management, on whose land the Hammonds operate — in April, and Zinke “said he would give his blessing to the president.”
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., also lobbied hard for clemency, discussing the matter with Trump in a June 29 phone call.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Land Tawney said in an interview that while it is understandable that the ranchers’ supporters were anxious for them to be released, the fact that President Donald Trump pardoned them outright rather than commuted their sentences “sends a message of tolerance for lawbreakers who could diminish our public lands and waters.
“You are just empowering and emboldening those who disrespect the people who are there to manage these lands for all the people of America,” Tawney said, predicting that the decision “will send shock waves up the ranks of the BLM.”