The federal indictment of Ammon Bundy and 15 other militants accuses them of conspiracy and using threats and intimidation to maintain their occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, as well as trying to coerce the local population.
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Sixteen people in all were charged with one count of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States, including the group’s leaders, Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan.
The FBI released video of the January 26 shooting during a traffic stop that showed Finicum’s hand reaching into his jacket, but supporters dispute he was going for a weapon.
Eleven people associated with the standoff at the Malheur refuge in rural Harney County had been arrested and charged with federal felony offenses.
Finicum’s death has become a symbol for those decrying federal oversight, on public lands in the West and elsewhere, and has led to protests of what they call an unnecessary use of force by the FBI and Oregon State Police.
It doesn’t appear that protestors in OR will be going home anytime soon. However, while he had previously told them to leave the refuge and said “this fight is ours for now in the courts”, this week he changed his message.
Bundy called his jailed followers “political prisoners” who were just trying to educate ranchers and others about their constitutional rights on federal lands and abuses by federal authorities. “This will allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation and [Oregon State Police] to also go home and end their armed occupation of Burns and Harney County”. “His heart is for everybody”, said former occupier Ben Matthews of Port Huron, Michigan, who came to Kanab to pay his respects.
Bundy also said the takeover of the refuge was the “duty of the people”, because of perceived injustices against Dwight Hammond Jr., 74, and Steven Hammond, 46, two ranchers now in federal prison for arson convictions.
From jail, Bundy asked through his attorney for the remaining occupiers to stand down, and Patrick was arrested soon after.
“The Government’s claim that allowing Ms. Cox to associate with “like minded people” might cause problems (as yet, unidentified) is, at best, a generalized worry and nothing approaching the order of a compelling governmental interest”, Harris said in the motion.
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Eleven people, including Bundy, were arrested – 10 in OR and one in Arizona.
