He also said Ammon Bundy and another protester warned Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward of “extreme unrest” two months before the protest and used social media to draw supporters from across the country. The current trial is for seven, including the group’s leaders, Ammon and Ryan Bundy. Bundy and his brother, Ammon Bundy, are set to go on trial 9 months after the armed occupation of a wild.
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(Recasts with opening remarks from prosecutors) By Courtney Sherwood PORTLAND, Ore., Sept 13 (Reuters) – Anti-government militants who seized a federal wildlife refuge in OR earlier this year conspired to intimidate government workers and steal property, a heavily armed protest that was not protected by the U.S. Constitution, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Ryan Bundy and Shawna Cox, the only woman among the seven defendants, are acting as their own lawyers and are expected to deliver their own opening statements. The group’s members have said they were protesting federal land use policy and wanted locals to control the area. Counter protesters, including environmentalists, also travelled to eastern OR and urged the federal government to administer public lands like the refuge for the widest possible uses for everyone from ranchers to bird watchers. At one point, Brown sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey that urged them to end the occupation “as safely and as quickly as possible”.
That’s the charge Ammon Bundy faces in a trial that began Tuesday in Portland for him, his brother Ryan and five other defendants. The government made no immediate attempt to retake the site and largely left the group alone for weeks until the last few holdouts abandoned the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Federal prosecutors today told a jury that the leaders of the armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year “moved as a military force”.
In a 45-minute opening statement Tuesday, prosecutor Geoffrey Barrow told jurors “everyone in this great nation has a right to his or her beliefs”. Five of them are also charged with possession of a firearm in a federal facility.
Barrow also revealed that one of the former defendants – Jason Blomgren, who pleaded guilty earlier this year – will testify for the prosecution, describing the hierarchy that was in place during the occupation.
A handful of protesters showed up Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.
The 41-day siege that began Jan 2 at the remote reserve put the spotlight on a long-running dispute over millions of acres of public land in the US West. They waved an upside-down American flag and marched around the building during the trial’s lunch break.
John Lamb drove from Bozeman, Montana, to take part in the protest.
Counterprotesters, including environmentalists, traveled to eastern OR and urged the federal government to administer public lands for the widest possible uses, for everyone from ranchers to bird watchers.
Armed protesters at a federal wildlife refuge in OR were exercising their rights to freedom of speech and assembly in a bid to expose the USA government’s illegal ownership and mismanagement of public lands in the West, lawyers for the defendants are expected to argue at trial on Tuesday. Barrow’s remarks came during opening statements in the trial of ranchers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five other limited-government activists who led the 41-day takeover of the refuge that began on January 2.
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The defendants are charged with conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through intimidation or threats.
