Ammon Bundy was indicted Wednesday with 10 others in connection with the January takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in OR, but the indictment was sealed and the defense doesn’t know what the charges are. The newly unsealed indictment against Ammon Bundy also charges 15 other people.
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The indictment claims that the group “did knowingly and willfully conspire and agree together and with each other and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury to prevent by force, intimidation and threats, officers and employees of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service…from discharging the duties of their office at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge”.
Meanwhile, four armed militants remain engaged in a standoff with federal law enforcement at the wildlife refuge near Burns.
But a federal public defender told reporters the reason for all the secrecy is that “there are likely other people who are included that they don’t want to (reveal) yet”.
The FBI declined to comment beyond directing attention to an aerial video of last Tuesday’s shooting that it released two days later and posted online. Internet radio talk show host Pete Santilli, who prosecutors say is also part of the occupation, has the continuation of his appealed detention hearing late Thursday.
Even if, as Steve Lipsher asserts, the Bundys and their ilk are out of touch with reality, there are a lot of people who believe them, and will admit to no reason why they should be beholden to, or owe, anything to the federal government.
The prosecutors brought the indictment to Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart during a hearing in federal court Wednesday.
They demanded release of any footage that may have been recorded by police body cameras or dashboard cameras, any audio recordings relating to the shooting, and close-up images of Finicum’s truck. Bundy’s relatives say the shooting was not justified.
Ammon Bundy’s attorney has said Bundy didn’t recognize Fry’s name and that he wasn’t a core member of the group. They had wanted the judge to allow Bundy to go home to Idaho with a Global Positioning System monitoring device and orders that he not leave the state except for court appearances. Ammon Bundy and the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom vowed to remain in Burns until the matter was taken up by the court and ownership of the refuge was placed back in local hands.
From jail, Bundy asked through his attorney for the occupiers to stand down, and Patrick was himself arrested soon after.
Defense attorneys for Bundy and his peers staunchly maintain that the group was not committing a federal crime when converging upon the refuge, but engaging in an act of civil disobedience.
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Some holdouts remain at the refuge.
