BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF BREAKING:  PROSECUTORS WANT CASE TO CONTINUE AFTER DOJ INTERVENTION

The prosecution in the Bunkerville Standoff case argues in a written filing Friday that it wants a new trial in spite of its failure to turn over more than 3300 pages of discovery evidence.

The prosecution argues the failure to disclose the evidence was "inadevertent".

This move comes after word from the Department of Justice in Washington before Christmas that a discovery evidence expert was advising the next move in the case.


In his 55 page brief, the Acting US Attorney in Las Vegas and lead Bunkerville prosecutor, Steven Myhre argues:


"The government takes its discovery obligations seriously"........

Myhre's argument echoes a statement from the Justice Department on December 20th after a mistrial was declared in the third trial with US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro ruling there was a "willful" failure to disclose discovery evidence that involves due process:

".......the Justice Department takes this issue very seriously."


Defense lawyers are seeking a dismissal of the charges "with prejudice" meaning the charges against the four defendants   (Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and Ryan Payne) could not be refiled.


A lawyer for Ryan Payne, Brenda Weksler argues:


"The government's irresponsible, and at times, false proffers to this court as well as its dismissiveness to the defense inspires no confidence in the prospect of fairness.....Anything short of dismissal is tantamount of condoning the government's behavior in this case.......Dismissal is the only way to ensure such conduct will not happen again...."



Payne's lawyers asked back on July 5th for copies of threat assessments prepared before the April 12, 2014 standoff.

The prosecution claimed the request was part of a "long list of frivolous and vexatious pleadings".

Once the trial got underway in November the four threat assessments were turned over after a government witness admitted to their existence with prosecutors claiming the assessments were "irrelevant".    The four assessments described the Bundys as people who would  "get in your face" but not commit violence.

The defendants are charged with assaulting federal officers and conspiring to assault federal officers among other things.

Failure by the prosecutors to disclose a surveillance camera and federal law enforcement snipers near Bundy Ranch is also relevant because the government accuses the defendants of lying about a federal threat to them in videos posted online ahead of the standoff.

When asked for an internal affairs report on fired Bureau of Land Management agent Dan Love, the prosecution described it as an "urban legend" but after the third trial got underway some 500 pages of such reports on Love were turned over to the defense in early December.

The defense lawyers for Ryan Payne also argued in their dismissal motion:

"This court should be 'troubled' by the government's actions and its 'failure to grasp the severity of the prosecutorial misconduct' involved here, as well as the importance of its constitutionally imposed discovery obligations."

"It bears reminding that this Court sentenced one of these defendants in the Trial 1 group to 68 years (Greg Burleson) and another one is pending sentencing (Todd Engel)."

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF 2018:  THE HIDDEN EVIDENCE AND SO MUCH MORE

Breaking News:  On Friday December 29th Acting US Attorney Steven Myrhe, the lead prosecutor in the Bunkerville trials, filed a 55 page brief arguing that a new trial should happen after the judge ruled that the prosecution had deliberately withheld discovery evidence from the defense causing due process issues.

Myhre's filing ahead of a January 8th hearing where the judge is expected to decide the future course of the Bunkerville case came after the US Department of Justice announced December 20th that a discovery evidence expert would be assisting the US Attorney's Office in Las Vegas in taking the next step.

The big focus in media reports in recent weeks is the "willful" withholding of discovery evidence by the Acting US Attorney in Las Vegas, Steven Myrhe.

But for those of us following the case closely through the many months, there's so much more that should be dealt with in the year ahead.

If Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks all that is needed is some "discovery evidence expert" to advise on the next step in the case, he is wrong.

1.  The coaching of witnesses to lie and mislead the jury 

A recent report by "Redoubt News" shed light on the testimony of Bureau of Land Management official Mary Jo Rugwell.   Rugwell testified at the beginning of the trial that turned into a mistrial back on November 15th,

She claimed no knowledge of who owned water rights on the grazing land used by Cliven Bundy but there is a paper trail showing that Rugwell contacted Nevada officials seeking to take water rights away from Cliven Bundy.

Perjury?

Many observers of the trial reported in their videos that they believed the witnesses had been coached and trained for their testimony with detailed answers for prosecution questions and no detailed answers for defense questions with many "I don't recall" answers mixed in.


And a juror who was dismissed when the mistrial was called December 20th expressed the opinion that a government witness was lying.   He also shook hands with defendant Ryan Bundy outside the courthouse.

See link below:


Juror shakes hands with Ryan Bundy

2.  The hatred of the Bundy's and their supporters and the killing of LaVoy Finicum in Oregon on January 26th, 2016

"My supervisor even took photographs in the secure command post area of the Las Vegas FBI headquarters and even after he was told no photographs were allowed, he recklessly emailed out photographs of the "Arrest Tracking Wall" in which Cliven Bundy and Eric Parker had  "X's" through their face and body......Mr. Myhre previously referred to the defendants as a cult and Mr. Schiess said 'lets get these shall we say Deplorables'........I was told of former BLM SAC Love's misconduct.  I was told by BLM Law Enforcement supervisors that he had a Kill Book as a trophy..."


BLM Agent Larry Wooten's "whistleblower" letter to US Department of Justice



The level of hatred and contempt revealed inside the federal government towards the Bundys and their supporters takes us back to the tactics utilized against them in connection with the Oregon Standoff in early 2016.


This kind of hatred no doubt contributed to the approach taken in the "felony traffic stop" that killed LaVoy Finicum and injured Ryan Bundy on January 26th, 2016 along US Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon.

3.  Did the "not guilty" verdicts in the first Oregon Standoff trial dictate the manipulation of witnesses  and evidence in the three Bunkerville Standoff trials?

When the jury found Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and five others not guilty in the first Oregon Standoff trial, US District Judge Anna J. Brown held a private meeting with jurors to ask them why they came up with "not guilty" verdicts.

In the second trial, the federal prosecutors tacked misdemeanor charges onto  felony ones and Judge Brown decided to hold a bench trial on the misdemeanors.

In addition, she restricted defense witnesses for the second trial where defendants were found guilty of some felonies by the jury and misdemeanors by the judge.

Did the judge and prosecutors in Oregon communicate anything to Nevada to help US District Judge Anna M. Navarro and or the prosecutors in Nevada  (Steven Myhre, Daniel Scheiss ,Nadia Ahmed) for the Bunkerville case "get the Bundys" and prevent not guilty verdicts there?

At the very least we can say that the outcome of the first Oregon Standoff trial provided a powerful incentive for the prosecution and judge to "get it right" in the Bunkerville trials.


ONE OTHER NOTE HERE.   THE ACTING US ATTORNEY IN OREGON WHO OVERSAW THE OREGON STANDOFF PROSECUTIONS, BILLY WILLIAMS, HAS BEEN NOMINATED TO BE PERMANENT US ATTORNEY IN OREGON BY PRESIDENT TRUMP WITH THE STRONG SUPPORT OF OREGON'S DEMOCRAT SENATORS JEFF MERKLEY AND RON WYDEN.

(UPDATED THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING)

OREGON STANDOFF 2018 :  MARCUS MUMFORD DISBARMENT, FBI AGENT TRIAL, LAST RIDE TO JAIL

Its been two years (January 2, 2016)  since Ammon Bundy began the Oregon Standoff protest at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon.

It was a protest launched based on the notion that one should  "love thy neighbor" as in Dwight and Steven Hammond .

The Hammonds were reporting to the federal prison at Terminal Island, California that day ordered back after serving lighter sentences to serve out five year mandatory sentences for "terrorism" because they lit a backfire to protect their property from a brush fire.

The jury heard Ammon Bundy on the stand describing the stand he took and found him and six other "leaders" of the protest not guilty on October 27th, 2016.

Bundy's defense lawyer Marcus Mumford then asked for his release but the prosecution said there was a Nevada retainer to keep Ammon Bundy in custody.     When asked to see the paperwork, Mumford was told it was "in the office".    As Mumford continued to argue for Bundy's release he was descended upon by a group of federal marshals tackled, tased and arrested.

Criminal charges were filed against Mumford with marshals saying he took an aggressive stance towards them.    But when Mumford's lawyer asked for cell phone records of the marshals communications about Mumford, the criminal charges were dropped.

Then the Chief US District Judge in Oregon, Michael Mosman, moved to disbar Mumford from the federal court in Oregon.

A Senior US District Judge from Washington state, John J. Coughenour , is handling the disbarment matter.    He dismissed the criminal case without prejudice meaning it could be brought back.

Coughenour has refused efforts by Mumford to amend the record of the trial or remove himself from the matter.

A full hearing of evidence in the disbarment is set for Portland on January 8th.

May 8th is the trial date for W. Joseph Astarita.   Astarita is the FBI Hostage Rescue Team agent accused of lying about the shots he fired at the truck driven by LaVoy Finicum on January 26th, 2016.

Ryan Bundy, who was riding in the truck, was injured and its believed the shrapnel wound he sustained came from Astarita's gun.  Federal prosecutors have said they would like to have the shrapnel.

There's no firm word on whether Ryan Bundy will allow it, but Bundy is now on pretrial release in Las Vegas in the Bunkerville Standoff case.    Its been suggested he may get medical treatment to remove the shrapnel, but that's a question mark for now.

Astarita has retained a high profile Washington DC attorney,  Rob Cary, for his defense.

Cary defended US Senator Ted Stevens in a corruption case and wrote a book about his "unlawful prosecution".

The defense intends to attack the credibility of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department shooting team that investigated the shots fired on January 26th, 2016 at the "felony traffic stop" along US Route 395 in Harney County.

The shooting team exonerated Oregon State Police in the killing of LaVoy Finicum, but then discovered that two additional shots were fired and that the FBI was responsible for them.

The matter ended up with the Department of Justice's Inspector General's Office leading to the charges of lying against the FBI agent.

Duane Ehmer was among a second group of defendants in the Oregon Standoff tried in a second rigged process set up after acquittal of the first group of defendants.

US District Judge Anna J. Brown sentenced Ehmer to one year and one day in prison.

Duane Ehmer rode his horse "Hellboy" outside the courthouse in Portland during many of the court proceedings in the case and now he's riding from his Oregon home down the West Coast enroute to the federal prison at Lompoc, California where he begins serving his sentence on Jan. 24th.

Ehmer rides carrying the American flag drawing attention to the case and those imprisoned from the Hammonds to others involved in the Oregon and Bunkerville cases.

A special flag with LaVoy Finicum's cattle brand on it is being signed at stops along with ride.

It will be auctioned off at the end of Ehmer's ride.

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  DEFENSE LAWYERS UNSEAL DETAILS OF PROSECUTION VIOLATIONS IN CASE

Lawyers for Ryan Payne, one of the four defendants in the Bunkerville Standoff trial, have effectively unsealed three motions they made to dismiss the case.

On Wednesday, with the exclusion of names requested by Judge Gloria Navarro, the paperwork was released to public view by Payne's defense lawyers.

Back on July 5th months before the current trial began, and in the midst of an earlier trial of six men in connection with the case, Payne's lawyers requested copies of all threat assessments prepared before the April 12, 2014 standoff.

The prosecution then responded that the request was part of a "long list of frivolous and vexatious pleadings".

The four threat assessments were not turned over until the trial got underway in November after a government witness admitted existence of the threat assessments.

At that point the prosecutors were claiming the threat assessments were "irrelevant" even though they painted the Bundys as people who would not commit acts of violence totally contradicting the prosecution's claim that the defendants were conspiring to launch an armed assault on federal law enforcement.    They are also charged with assault on federal officers in this trial.

Payne's lawyers argued in their motions:  

"This court should be 'troubled' by the government's actions and it's 'failure to grasp the severity of the prosecutorial misconduct' involved here, as well as the importance of its constitutionally imposed discovery obligations."

"It bears reminding that this Court sentenced one of these defendants in the Trial 1 group to 68 years (Greg Burleson) and another one is pending sentencing (Todd Engel)"

Payne's attorney's, Brenda Weksler and Ryan Norwood, note that the evidence of a surveillance camera and federal snipers around Bundy Ranch withheld from the defense contradicts the prosesuction's assertion that lies were being told by the defendants about a federal threat to them.

The prosecutors also claimed to the defense that any internal report on Bureau of Land Management agent Dan Love was an "urban legend", yet by early December as the third trial got underway some 500 pages of internal affairs reports on Love were turned over to the defense.

Maxine Bernstein Oregon Live Story 12/28/2017

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  OREGON SHERIFF WEIGHS IN ON RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

"You may not support the Occupiers for the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge or the Bundy Standoff and that is a personal choice or decision made by each of us as an individual.  At this point, these issues should be moot with all of us.

The underlying issue and concern I have is how far our representative government has gone to fudge, lie, cheat, manipulate, falsify, withhold, deny, cover up, doctored, abuse and misuse their positions at our expense and go so far to see that they broke not only the rules but the public trust.    When our government goes as far as they did to do whatever it took to see these people imprisoned and jailed for literally two years......."

Grant County, Oregon Sheriff Glenn Palmer "Facebook" post December 22, 2017

Before the Oregon Standoff protest began at Harney County's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year, Sheriff Glenn Palmer of neighboring Grant County had gained a reputation as a Constitutional Sheriff.

Palmer refused to sign a 'joint agreement' with federal law enforcement patrolling the federally owned lands in Grant County and had spoken out in the media about his position.

Then came the Oregon Standoff protest with Palmer calling for a negotiated settlement and release of the Harney County ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond jailed as "terrorists" (five year mandatory sentence) for lighting a backfire to protect their property.

The Oregon State Sheriff's Association then rallied around the FBI's aggressive and deadly policy in dealing with the protest.   

Armored vehicles were sent by the various sheriff's departments in Oregon to assist with operations in Harney County.

The ambush "felony traffic stop" that killed LaVoy Finicum and injured Ryan Bundy on January 26th, 2016 occurred as Sheriff Palmer and a crowd were awaiting the arrival of the "leaders" of the protest for a rally in John Day, Oregon as they attempted to extend the reach of their non-violent protest.

The local police chief in John Day and the 911 call center director there filed complaints against Sheriff Palmer alleging misconduct but an investigation found no wrongdoing.   Those complaints came last year during Palmer's re-election year, but Palmer won anyway.

Palmer had more to say in his post in the aftermath of the recent revelations about the Bunkerville Standoff case and here it is.

".......This maneuver and tactics utilized should have us all outraged.   It leaves an err of questioning as to what else and who else before has had to go down this road and wonder of who else has been falsely and wrongfully prosecuted and convicted.

When we are at a time in society that our government will break the law to enforce the law, and where people will not unite to ensure that this shall never happen to another single citizen,  I have to wonder if we are still a free nation.  These actions are what you would expect to see or witness coming from a Third World Country or a foreign nation.  Not the United States of America.

Allowing this to happen and condone that fellow citizens were treated as they were treated as they were and locked away for two years is literally horrid.  Our Judicial system failed these people and there has got to be accountability."

BUNKERVILLE AND OREGON PRISONERS REMEMBERED AS 'HELLBOY' RIDES DOWN WEST COAST

                                            "Is Hellboy out there?"

US District Judge Anna J. Brown speaks in her courtroom this fall as an Oregon Standoff defendant is being sentenced in her courtroom

Duane Ehmer was part of the Oregon Standoff protest and was tried in the second rigged trial process after leaders of the protest were acquitted in the first trial.

After his conviction Ehmer was sentenced to one year and one day in prison and agreed to pay 10-thousand dollars in restitution.   He's scheduled to report to a prison a thousand miles from his Irrigon, Oregon home on January 24th.

Ehmer has been a constant presence outside the courthouse in Portland during court activities related to the Oregon Standoff case, riding his horse "Hellboy".

Now Ehmer is riding "Hellboy" down the West Coast for a last ride on his way to prison.   Today at 4pm Ehmer will be in Salem, Oregon at the State Capitol.

Ehmer is riding to draw attention to the Oregon and Bunkerville cases and those imprisoned in connection with them.

Ehmer believes the federal authorities decision to send him to a California federal prison was related to his plan to ride his horse to the Oregon prison where was originally set to serve his sentence.

Video Update from Andrea Parker on "JGrady" You Tube

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  FRIDAY DEADLINE FOR WRITTEN ARGUMENTS, LEAD PROSECUTOR INVOLVED IN PREVIOUS MISTRIAL CASE

This Friday (December 29th) is the deadline for written arguments to be submitted by prosecutors and defense attorneys to US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro.

They are arguing whether Judge Navarro should make the mistrial she has declared in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial one with or without prejudice.

A "with prejudice" ruling would mean that the government's charges against the defendants (Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and Ryan Payne) could not be refiled.   A 'without prejudice' ruling would mean a new trial starting February 26th.

A hearing is set for January 8th when Judge Navarro is expected to make her decision.

Cliven Bundy's defense attorney, Bret Whipple, points to the "US vs Chapman" case just over a decade ago in Las Vegas where the judge declared a mistrial over 600 plus pages of evidence impeaching the prosecution's case.    Written arguments were requested and then the judge ruled to dismiss the charges.    An appeal by the prosecution to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals failed.

Shari Dovale of "Redoubt News"  reports that the man overseeing that case was none other than the lead prosecutor in the Bunkerville  case, Steven Myhre.    Myhre was also Acting US Attorney in Las Vegas at the time.

Of course one other factor in the unfolding situation is the intervention of the Justice Department with the discovery evidence "expert" sent out to review the case and recommend the next step.

Will there be a backing down by the Justice Department or a doubling down to keep the case going?

Will any disciplinary action be imposed on the prosecutors (Steven Myhre, Daniel Schiess and Nadia Ahmed)?

Will there be investigations by the Justice Department into FBI conduct or by the Department of the Interior into Bureau of Land Management conduct in the case.  

The 18-page memo by BLM agent Larry Wooten points to what he called "offensive" and "unprofessional" conduct by the US Attorney's office, the FBI and BLM.  He also suggested possible law breaking.

Others have stronger words for the behavior of law enforcement uncovered in the memo like Andrea Parker, who's husband Eric went through the first two trials with juries either unable to reach verdicts (most of them voting 'not guilty' apparently)  and six out of ten charges "not guilty" in the second trial.

In a video posted earlier this month, she wonders if anything will happen to those involved in what she called the "malicious prosecution" of her husband and the eighteen others indicted and arrested in connection with Bunkerville..

"......We need to look at what happened in the first two trials and we need to look at prosecuting Steven Myhre and some FBI agents and some BLM and a lot of BLM agents because we are only making this type of behavior regular behavior in our federal government if these people are not held accountable."

Andrea Parker- December 18, 2017 Video Posted on "JGrady" You Tube Account

Andrea Parker December 18th Video

A CHRISTMAS GIFT:  GOOD TALK RADIO WITH TRUTH IN IT LIKE THIS.....

"I am well...surprised and perhaps disappointed that the "Leavers" in the Tory Party are not being a lot louder than they are.  Yes, sure Peter Bone saying things, we've got Jacob Rees-Mogg saying things, Ian Duncan Smith saying things but too few of them in my view are saying very much cause they don't want to cause problems for the party cause they might let Labour in.

And we get back to the same thing that dominates British politics.  We have to support this party cause we hate the other one a little bit more.  Makes it very, very difficult to get genuine change in this country."

The Nigel Farage Show-December 17th, 2017

I used to think Talk Radio was so great in this country but now I realize in the end it fronts for the Republican Establishment dropping bombs on the Democrats almost all the time while spending a few seconds baiting you with criticism of RINO's or Trump Haters in the GOP.

They want you to hate the Democrats so much you'll vote RINO (95 plus percent of all GOP candidates and elected officials in office now).

And big government continues with trimming of taxes or trimming of spending around the edges, but not real deep, meaningful change.

We keep moving in the wrong direction.

I scratched my head recently when I heard Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (former GOP congressman) proclaim a great victory for President Trump with a decision to create smaller "national monuments" on Western land than Barack Obama intended to, further crushing the farmers and ranchers ability to use Western land but on a smaller scale than the "Clinton, Pelosi, Schumer, Obama Democrats" as GOP propagandists write the script-talking points for Fox News, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck etc. etc. etc.

A short Bunkerville related note here.   Cliven Bundy's problems with the federal government run back to the days of the first Bush presidency and in 2008 while W Bush was in office, the Bureau of Land Management was actively working to take away his water rights on the grazing land.

That's why I listen to Nigel Farage a lot more than the fake "Conservative Media" fronting for the GOP or the Democrat fronting CNN, MSNBC and other "Mainstream Media".

Real change comes from a third direction, from folks like Farage who used to lead a third political force, UKIP, and who campaigned for Brexit which won last year, now being undermined by the "Conservative Party" and their "Fexit" that is undermining the intention of the voters.

Nigel operates under "Fairness Doctrine" type restrictions in the UK, but he gets his opinion in just like those famous 1970's hosts did on radio here in the USA (Bob Grant, Ray Briem, Barry Farber etc.)

Farage is a third force (or in his country a fourth since there are 3 Uniparties)  outside the Uniparty echo chamber and Nigel supported Donald Trump, another third force.

So give Nigel's show a listen through these videos on the "Orion Prime" account on You Tube.

Its way past time to get out of the Republicans versus Democrats ghetto and put the right thing to do ahead of "us versus them".

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Nigel Farage Dec. 17th Show Video Quoted Above

Orion Prime Video Link For All Nigel Farage Radio Shows

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  HOME FOR CHRISTMAS? PROSECUTORS FACE INTERNAL INVESTIGATION

The Bunkerville Standoff defendants on pre-trial release face restrictions but these have been loosened for the Christmas and New Year's holidays for Ryan Payne and Ammon Bundy.

Payne will be in Montana with his fiancee' and children, Ammon Bundy will be at Bundy Ranch and at a home in Las Vegas with his wife and children.

Cliven Bundy remains in jail, awaiting the ability to be totally free without any restrictions.

Others convicted or who entered guilty pleas are also in jail for Christmas.

Greg Burleson, Todd Engel and Jerry DeLemus are prisoners in connection with Bunkerville.

Burleson was convicted in the first trial and US District Judge Gloria Navarro slapped a 68 year sentence on him.   We now know that massive amounts of evidence were withheld from that trial, but Judge Navarro wasn't listening to the notion and deliberately restricted defense arguments to prevent self-defense or freedom of speech as arguments.

Also convicted in the same rigged first trial was Engel.   He could theoretically be sentenced to 30 years in prison based on the two counts he was convicted on.   But its time now for him to be set free if ever there was along with Burleson.   Todd Engel is being held without bail awaiting sentencing at this point.

Then there's the Marine from New Hampshire, Jerry DeLemus.    DeLemus was co-chair of Veterans for Trump during the New Hampshire Primary last year.   His house was raided after the primary at dawn and Jerry DeLemus was taken to Las Vegas, where he probably unwisely decided to plead guilty.   DeLemus was unable to withdraw his plea and faced Judge Navarro for sentencing.

Navarro spoke out and branded him a "vigilante bully" and gave him 87 months instead of the six years (72 months) proposed by the prosecution.

Jerry DeLemus is at the Devens federal prison in Massachusetts, living in the same lockup as Anthony Weiner and Weiner is only doing 21 to 27 months so we all know who gets out first.

And of course, Harney County, Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond remain imprisoned at the Terminal Island federal prison in Long Beach, California.

The Hammonds were sent back to federal prison for a second time in January 2016 to serve mandatory five year terms as "terrorists" when the federal government determined they must serve the heavier sentence because lighting a backfire to protect your land from a brush fire and touching federal land in the process is an "act of terrorism".

Their return to prison led Ammon Bundy to initiate the Oregon Standoff protest on January 2, 2016 for which he was found not guilty on October 27th that year by a jury in Portland.

Meanwhile, "Oregon Live" published a story Friday from reporter Maxine Bernstein that notes when a judge finds prosecutors have willfully withheld discovery evidence in violation of the 1963 Brady ruling from the Supreme Court (as Judge  Gloria Navarro has), an internal investigation is triggered.

The news report says that Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre, along with Assistant US Attorneys Daniel Schiess  and Nadia Ahmed could be reprimanded or suspended.

But many are of the opinion that much more needs to be done to the prosecutors and others from the FBI and Bureau of Land Management for their actions related to the case.

"Redoubt News" has published a story about the evidence hearing testimony last month from Mary Jo Rugwell, a former BLM officials who handled matters involving Bundy Ranch.

Rugwell testified she had no knowledge who had water rights on the grazing land Cliven Bundy used but there is a paper trail that shows Rugwell  trying to have Bundy's water rights on the land taken away back in 2008.

The news story points to the notion that Rugwell committed perjury in her testimony.

(UPDATED INTO SUNDAY MORNING)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  THE FBI AND I AGREE IN OUR ASSESSMENT OF THE BUNDYS

".....She also cited at least four threat assessments that indicated the Bundys likely wouldn't use violence, 'would get in your face' but not engage in a shootout, and that the Bureau of Land Management was antagonizing the family 'trying to provoke a conflict'.   The threat evaluations were made by the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Unit, the FBI Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Gold Butte Cattle Impound Risk Assessment and the Bureau of Land Management law enforcement arm between 2011 and 2015."

"OregonLive" story 12/20/2017 on the mistrial declared by US District Judge Gloria Navarro in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial over massive amounts of evidence prosecutors "willfully" withheld from the defense

In early January 2016 the Oregon Standoff protest began with a lot of drama about "armed militants" and "militia" and  an "armed standoff" confusing my mind but as time moved on I came to realize that this protest led by Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan was totally peaceful in its heart.

It was a protest in Ammon's words to 'love thy neighbor' as in Dwight and Steven Hammond, ordered to return to a federal prison to serve out  five year mandatory sentences as "terrorists" for lighting a backfire to protect their land from a brush fire.

I eventually came to realize that the Bundys talked like Billy Jack, but acted like Martin Luther King or Gandhi.

The federal land policies that have become increasingly repressive in the Western states over the decades are a modern day equivalent of Jim Crow racism and the Republican Party better get its act together to deal with the problem instead of slowly doing what Barack Obama was doing at a more rapid pace.

I found it laughable recently to hear Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proclaim a victory in President Donald Trump's name for deciding to only designate smaller portions of land as "national monuments" than Barack Obama planned to.

How about reversing what Barack Obama planned to do?   But that's never been the GOP way.  Both parties move us in the same way, one faster than the other.

What Zinke did leaves me wondering what Jeff Sessions will do about this case now that the dam has broke on misconduct by his man in Las Vegas, Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre.   Myhre was the man Sessions praised for his "leadership" in the case earlier this year.

This "expert" Sessions is sending to Vegas, what is he going to do?

Getting the charges dropped against the four defendants would be good, but then we must deal with all the others involved from the defendants set to face trial later, those in jail because of guilty convictions in the first rigged evidence trial and the man who pled guilty and sits in the same prison as Anthony Weiner right now.

Then let us get into the Bureau of Land Management (run by Ryan Zinke's Interior Department) and the FBI.    Both agencies acted improperly in the Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre's rigged prosecution and evidence hiding.

Myhre's zeal to rig the Bunkerville trials in Nevada is probably linked in some way to the outcome of the first trial in the Oregon Standoff protests, where all seven defendants including Ammon and Ryan Bundy were found not guilty.    The federal prosecutors in Oregon and the judge, Anna J. Brown worked to rig the second trial in ways that resemble what happened in the first two Nevada trials.

Judge Brown sat down with jurors right after their "not guilty" verdicts asking questions about why they reached their decision.

Any investigation of rigging in Oregon, Mr. Sessions?   Heck, why did President Trump end up nominating the overseer of the Oregon case, Billy Williams, as permanent US Attorney in Portland?

The hatred of the Bundys and their supporters uncovered by the BLM whistleblower, Larry Wooten, points to hatred in Oregon that led to an FBI organized felony traffic stop that killed LaVoy Finicum and injured Ryan Bundy.   People like Ryan and Ammon Bundy, arrested that night, ended up being found not guilty of felony charges.

I know there's more I'm leaving out but I will mention the US Marshals who tackled, tased and arrested Ammon Bundy's lawyer in Oregon right after the not guilty verdicts.   Criminal charges dropped but the lead federal judge in Oregon, Michael Mosman, seeking to disbar Marcus Mumford from the Oregon federal court.   A hearing in that matter set January 8th in Portland.

Who's investigating the US Marshals?

In Nevada the marshals roughed up the Bundys and forced them to face walls.   That's what Soviet guards did in their prisons of the Gulag.

The US Marshals Service needs to be investigated on multiple matters in multiple places.

The Republicans use "law and order" which Myhre said the case was all about in his evidence concealed Bunkerville prosecutions.    The Republicans tout law enforcement endorsements every election cycle.

The Democrats kissed up to the Jim Crow segregationists until Martin Luther King forced them to change.

Donald Trump said "I have you back" to the FBI agents recently but he mentioned some anger out there I guess linked to the Mueller matter.

But do you know what Washington DC, there's some other anger at the FBI and other federal law enforcement in the picture, too.

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:   ATTORNEY GENERAL SENDING EXPERT TO ADVISE NEXT STEP

There was word from Washington late Wednesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered an expert on discovery evidence to review the Bunkerville case and advise the next step or steps.

A spokesman for the Justice Department says "the Justice Department takes this issue very seriously".

When he visited Las Vegas in July, Attorney General Jeff Sessions heaped praise on Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre for his handling of Bunkerville, hailing his "leadership" in the matter.

Myrhe  issued a statement saying "the office welcomes the assistance of the Attorney General" and saying he respects the ruling of the court regarding the mistrial.

Myrhe also claims in the  statement:  "take very seriously our discovery obligations".

The  judge called a mistrial because of numerous violations involving some 3300 pages of evidence not turned over to defense lawyers by the prosecution as required under discovery rules in trials.

To wrap this post up, the "expert" being brought in will lead to something.   I would hate to jump to any conclusions.

In terms of optics, it would look very bad for the Republican Party to have a liberal Democrat judge, a protégé of Harry Reid no less, be the person who drops the charges against the Bunkerville Standoff defendants and who starts to unravel the case for a prosecutor roundly endorsed earlier this year by Jeff Sessions.

Maybe Washington sees a political train wreck on the way and wants to do something about it?

(NEXT POST IN THE MORNING, UPDATED EARLY FRIDAY)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  JANUARY 8TH COURT HEARINGS WILL SET FUTURE COURSE OF CASE

"I do not believe that there is a jury in this country that will convict us"

Ammon Bundy speaks to media outside courthouse in Las Vegas 12/20/2017

"Has the West been won, or has the fight just begun"

Cliven Bundy's wife Carol speaks outside courthouse in Las Vegas 12/20/2017

After Judge Gloria Navarro declared that there is a mistrial in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial yesterday defendant Ryan Bundy, acting in his own defense, moved that all four defendants be released on their own recognizance.

Currently Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne are on pre-trial release with a curfew, unable to go home with Cliven Bundy opting to remain in jail until he is totally free to go home.

In addition Ryan Bundy made a motion to release three other men jailed in connection with the case because of the prosecution's misconduct in the case.

Todd Engel and Greg Burleson were convicted in the first trial with Judge Navarro slapping a 68 year sentence on Burleson.   Jerry DeLemus pled guilty in the case and Judge Navarro slapped him with an 87 month sentence, calling DeLemus a "vigilante bully" at sentencing.   That sentence 15 months more than what prosecutors asked for.

The US Attorney's office in Las Vegas had no comment on Judge Navarro's mistrial call yesterday.    

Trial observer John Lamb said defense lawyers anticipate the prosecution will appeal Judge Navarro's ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at some point.

Written arguments from both sides are to be submitted to the judge by Friday December 29th and a hearing is set for January 8th on whether or not she will dismiss the case with or without prejudice.

A 'with prejudice" ruling would mean the charges against the defendants are dropped while a "without prejudice" ruling would lead to a planned February 26th trial date.

Judge Navarro expressed her willingness to see evidence related to the case released with names redacted.  She will also be holding a hearing on January 8th regarding requests from the media led by the "Las Vegas Review Journal" seeking public release of evidence in the case.

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  MISTRIAL DECLARED IN THIRD TRIAL, NEW TRIAL DATE FEB. 26TH  

US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro decided on a mistrial in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial today, citing extensive withholding of exculpatory evidence in the case.

She wants written arguments from the prosecution and defense on whether she should declare  the mistrial with prejudice or without, setting a December 29th deadline for written arguments.

A "with prejudice" declaration by the judge would mean the charges are dropped.

Ryan Bundy asked for release of his father Cliven Bundy and removal of GPS monitoring in light of the government's misconduct.

Cliven Bundy's lawyer, Bret Whipple, filed an emergency motion calling for Bundy's release under those conditions this afternoon.

There was an overflow crowd at the courtroom into the hallway.   Protesters supporting the defendants were outside the courthouse.  Also outside, environmentalists opposing the defendants using a bullhorn to amplify their protest.   One observer called them "George Soros paid"......

Coming up on January 8th is a hearing where Judge Navarro is expected to decide whether there is a mistrial with prejudice, meaning the charges are out or she will make it a mistrial allowing a new trial on February 26th.

(UPDATED LATE WENDESDAY, EARLY THURSDAY, NEXT POST LATER TODAY)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  DECISION DAY FOR JUDGE NAVARRO, PROSECUTORS CLAIM NEED FOR 'FAIR TRIAL'

After deciding to delay the third Bunkerville Standoff trial and admitting that much discovery evidence was withheld from defense lawyers and suggesting a mistrial was possible, US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro is expected to make her decision about where the trial and perhaps the case goes next in the coming hours.

The prosecution and defense have given Judge Navarro their opinions in sealed arguments withheld from the public about what should happen next.   The defense hoping that the charges against the four defendants in the third trial (Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and Ryan Payne) are dismissed with prejudice.

But Judge Navarro has plenty of other options including a mistrial leading to a retrial of the defendants or continuing the trial with modified conditions.

Late Monday, the prosecutors in the case led by Acting US Attorney Steven Myhre filed a motion calling on the judge to do what she did in the first two trials.   Myhre wants to limit the defense from arguing the defendants acted in self-defense or were entrapped by the federal government in the April 12, 2014 standoff near Bundy Ranch in northern Clark County, Nevada.

The prosecution is claiming that the government needs to have a "fair trial" just like the defendants do.

Myhre is calling on defense lawyers to be given a chance to respond to his motion by January 1st.

One of the defense lawyers, federal public defender Brenda Weksler, says the government is "stalling or sandbagging" the case with its motion.   Weksler is on the attorneys for defendant Ryan Payne.

Events are expected to unfold in the hours ahead.

A post is coming later.

But events may break before the post.

Maxine Bernstein's Twitter page and the JGrady You Tube account may offer written and or video updates.

Links are below.

Maxine Bernstein Twitter Page

JGrady You Tube Videos

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  PROSECUTORS WANT DEFENSE CASE LIMITED AGAIN

Late Monday, Acting  US Attorney Steven Myhre filed a motion saying the defense should not be allowed to say federal agents actions caused the defendants to be entrapped or to act in self-defense.

This is a repeat of the stance he took in the first two trials where evidence of entrapment and aggressive federal actions that caused the defendants to act the way they did was not disclosed to defense lawyers.

The defense in the case responded asking US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro to strike the prosecution motion.

The jurors are scheduled to come back to the courthouse tomorrow and we should find out then what the path of the trial will be, if any.

Is this move going to succeed again in light of what we know now?   Is it for 'propaganda purposes' for a future jury pool if there is a mistrial?

More will be posted Wednesday morning December 20th, the day a decisive decision is expected on the future path of the third Bunkerville trial and or the Bunkerville case.

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  AMMON BUNDY SPEAKS WITH MEDIA, IDAHO LEGISLATORS CALL ON SESSIONS TO DROP CHARGES

".....There is a lot more that the public does not know and the public should know...."

"......as long as we don't get bitter, as long as we don't get hard we'll be OK....."

Ammon Bundy speaks with reporter Maxine Bernstein of "Oregon Live" 12/18/2017

Ammon Bundy came down to the courthouse in Las Vegas today to speak with the media about the Bunkerville Standoff case and the massive amount of information that's hidden from the public by the closed court process discussing evidence.

VIDEO INCLUDING PORTION WITH AMMON BUNDY AND MAXINE BERNSTEIN


A group of Idaho legislators wrote Attorney General Jeff Sessions back at the end of August about the Bunkerville case.

They want the charges against the Idaho men currently on trial dropped, among other things.

Ammon Bundy's attorney G. Morgan Philpot said today that the massive evidence release from prosecutors in recent weeks, evidence previously withheld from the defense, proves the government case against the defendants is not true.

The indictiment's claims that the Bundy's were lying about the threat to them, that they planned an "assault" on federal agents are proven not true.    The evidence showed the presence of heavily armed FBI and BLM agents around Bundy Ranch when Cliven Bundy expressed fears for his safety and appealed for help.

"I think what this is starting to show is that the Bundy's were truthful in stating that they felt like their lives were in jeopardy, like they felt they were being threatened by the federal government particularly by the BLM....."

G. Morgan Philpot, Ammon Bundy's attorney, speaks with Bryan Hyde-12/18/2017

VIDEO OF BRYAN HYDE WITH AMMON BUNDY ATTORNEY


FULL INTERVIEW WITH AMMON BUNDY-THE OREGONIAN/OREGON LIVE

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF: DEFENSE DEADLINE TODAY, NEW BLM MEMO LEAKED

The defense in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial has a deadline today to respond to the prosecution's arguments over their delay in providing discovery evidence.

The closed door process is expected to lead to some sort of decision by US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro about the future path of the trial this week.  

The jury was asked to come back to court on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, over the weekend there was another leak of a Bureau of Land Managment memo, this time coming from the person who was brought in to replace the "whistleblower" Larry Wooten who was reviewing the BLM's handling of Bunkerville.

Washington state legislator Matt Shea posted a video at 2am Eastern Sunday and eight hours later a story was posted online by "OregonLive" from reporter Maxine Bernstein.

Bernstein reported the memo from BLM official Kent Kleman as contradicting what Wooten said in his.

Acting US Attorney Steven Myhre went into a closed court session Friday to demand sanctions on the defense for the Wooten leak.   The judge only offered a mild rebuke asking that it not happen again.

This new leak is apparently from a different direction designed to benefit the prosecution.

One can rightly suspect Mr. Myhre and his associates of being behind it.

Its always the day before the weekend or the week before a holiday when government does things that will upset people or announces things that make government look bad.

It looks like we are on course for such developments this week.

Updates as things develop.

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  DOES AMMON BUNDY FILL A LEADERSHIP VOID TO DRAIN THE SWAMP?

"We have an unconstitutional land agency, a federal agency and its not just the land agency.....coming down inside the states and literally putting its people in fear and forcing the states into undue obedience, forcing us the people into undue obedience. 

And when we allow that to happen and we don't hold them accountable and we have no way to hold them accountable and why?    Why don't we have a way to hold Dan Love accountable?   Why don't we have a way  to hold these people accountable?  

Because they're outside of the authority that they're acting, they're usurping it.  There's no way to hold them accountable.  You can't vote em in, you can't vote em out, you can't defund them.

You can't do anything with them because they're not supposed to be here.   These lands and all these  are supposed to be handled on a county and a state level and for them to come in and assert themselves and use force and intimidation to tax us to death and take it up to Washington DC and then dangle it over our heads.

Saying that if you don't do this we're not going to fund you, if you do that we're not going to fund you and if you do do this we will fund you completely controlling the people and literally forcing us into undue obedience.....

when we go away from the founding principles that built this nation, what do you think's gonna happen.  This is what happens.  Until we get back to the principles that are outlined in the Constitution, until we stand on those principles, we cannot be free.

And it will happen over and over and I guarantee its happening in the Department of Justice, in the FBI, in the Department of Education, in every department of the federal government because there is no accountability and we can't make em accountable.

But on a county level, we could get em out, on a state level we can hold em accountable and that's the issue here and we cannot lose sight of that.

Its not that we go to Washington DC  'Boy we reprimanded the BLM, boy we gotta straighten them out to make sure they follow their procedures and  regulations and their statutes right'.   NO, IT'S THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE IN OUR STATES PERIOD.      And as long as they are we're in danger.

As long as they  are we can't use our lands and resources and it'll throw us completely into poverty.  You cannot live without the land. You cannot survive without the water.

And they have deliberately and intentionally and deceptively over years, over decades taken the land, taken the water and the resources, the minerals away from the people until we wonder why we're all struggling to make a living....."

Ammon Bundy 12/14/2017

As the revelations from a Bureau of Land Management agent, Larry Wooten, have oozed out in the Bunkerville Standoff case, one is reminded in its passages revealing hatred for the Bundy's with epithets, pornographically altered pictures, a "kill list" of Bundy family members and supporters and so on of the kind of hatred that leads to murder.

The kind of hatred that killed three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964, that killed other civil rights leaders from Martin Luther King to Medgar Evers.   Yes, the kind of hatred that killed LaVoy Finicum alongside an Oregon road on January 26, 2016 during the Oregon Standoff protest.

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was freed from from the Georgia State Prison by the intervention of John F. Kennedy, Democrat presidential candidate in the fall of 1960, King was grateful to Kennedy.

But once Kennedy became President of the United States and there was no change in the racial situation, Dr. King became a thorn in the side of the Democratic Party's political machine, which was a union of Jim Crow segregationists and pro-integration black and white voters in the North.  

Speeches supporting racial equality were made, but concrete actions were not taken.

What's been happening with federal lands since Donald Trump became President of the United States is truly stunning with former Republican Congressman Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proclaiming victories in Donald Trump's name when he decided to scale back Barack Obama's designation of three areas as "National Monuments".

This Republican administrator of federal lands thinks its a great victory "Making America Great Again" when he decides to do only 15 percent or even more of what Obama was going to do,

That's the way the swamp works, the Democrats go the wrong way in  high gear, the Republicans do the same in in a lower gear.

Donald Trump is one man isolated by the whims of public opinion and the swampland that forms an oversized "moat" around the White House and even inside it.

After 2400 people were arrested in Birmingham in the spring of 1963, including 1100 children including a large contingent of six and seven year olds whose May 2, 1963 march into police lines helped change the course of history, President Kennedy faced the shift in public opinion that forced him to sign civil rights executive orders and support a civil rights bill, actions he was previously unwilling to take.

Dr, Martin Luther King had to go outside of politics to reverse a racial control system that had become entrenched over decades in the South impoverishing the non-white population.

Over the decades since the 1960's the federal land control system in the West has tightened impoverishing  farmers and ranchers and others who used the land to make a living.

Big business forces that run politics like big centralized systems of government control that make it easier to do business, leaving small operators on the outside like the Bundys.

In the weeks before the FBI opted for violence against a non-violent protest (Oregon Standoff) and arrested Ammon Bundy, he was speaking and helping citizens organize at a local level to reassert local authority over land.

The violent FBI led operation that killed LaVoy Finicum injured Ryan Bundy with Ammon Bundy being arrested among others came as the group traveled to a public meeting in Grant County, Oregon to promote  non violent action to reverse the federal tyranny.

Government spends more money gets bigger etc. etc. after all the speeches are over.

Didn't Simon and Garfunkel get it right 50 years ago:

".....Goin to the candidates debate, laugh about it, shout about it, when you got to choose, anyway you look at it you lose...."

"Mrs. Robinson"-Simon and Garfunkel (1968)

We saw what goes on in politics in recent weeks when someone outside the system like Roy Moore tries to break in.

Well, there's always the Gandhi-MLK Option and Ammon Bundy sees that in his own way as the way forward.

Gandhi upended the British Empire and MLK broke the Jim Crow system without violence, resisting.

Ammon Bundy's message is that the people in this country are not free even if the case against him and the others is thrown out, more needs to be done.

And politics seems to be a mess outside of President Trump himself.

"We the People" are what makes the country great and our actions, actions outside politics to force the politicians to change may be the best option in the times we live in and Ammon Bundy has demonstrated the courage to take such actions.

If he ends up being truly free and not on a GPS monitor on pre-trial release, if the charges do get thrown out in coming days, I see Ammon Bundy as someone who can lead and someone who should be followed instead of the phony baloney politicians and the political machine of interest groups, media outlets of the "Left" and "Right" etc. etc.

We've been fools being fooled for too long and slaves to the lies and promises of the GOP politicians and politicians in general and the groups and media that front for them.

Its time to live freely, act freely and as the New Hampshire slogan says "Live Free Or Die".

Video Link Below:

Ammon Bundy Video Excerpted In Post

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF BREAKING:  PROESECUTOR  TRIES TO SANCTION DEFENSE OVER LEAKED INFORMATION

Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre, the lead prosecutor in the Bunkerville Standoff case, got a closed door hearing today where he tried to get G. Morgan Philpot, defendant Ammon Bundy's defense lawyer, sanctioned over the information that has leaked out about federal misconduct in the Bunkerville case.

In the end US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro mildly admonished Philpot asking that what happened not happen again.

The 18 pages of documents from Bureau of Land Management investigator Larry Wooten was disseminated in multiple directions yesterday.    Maxine Bernstein of "The Oregonian/Oregon Live" in Portland, Washington state legislator Matt Shea appearing on "Redoubt News" and blogger Gary Hunt at "Outpost of Freedom".

Hunt's blog post contains disturbing passages regarding pornographically altered images of the Bundy's in a federal office and the "locker room talk" among federal agents handling the case.

We should know more early next week about the direction this case is going and if the evidence issues will prove to be the udoing of the prosecution of the Bunkerville defendants currently on trial or facing trial.

The injustice done to those already tried with some found guilty, those who pled guilty, those who were jailed without bail etc. etc. will still be left on the table.




Gary Hunt Outpost of Freedom Blog Post

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  DEADLINE FOR PROSECUTION,  MEDIA WANTS OPEN PROCESS,  INFORMATION LEAKING OUT

"The discovery clearly shows that the prosecutor Steven Myhre  did everything he did, he could to cover up there were snipers.....He even had BLM agents come back in a year later and re-clarify their testimony to say they didn't act as a spotter, they didn't act as a sniper...."

Defendant Ammon Bundy in Facebook video 12/14/2017

Prosecutors in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial face a deadline today (Friday December 15th) to submit their arguments regarding evidence withheld from defense lawyers.

The defense will have until Monday to respond to the prosecution arguments.

Judge Gloria Navarro is considering violations of "Brady" evidence rules and whether those violations will mean an amended trial or a mistrial.

The whole process though is going in outside of public view in sealed motions, arguments and closed door hearings.

The "Las Vegas Review Journal" along with Battle Born Media, a company that owns weekly newspapers in Nevada want the process to be opened up to public view.

A motion filed by them Wednesday says that:  "There is insufficient basis to maintain certain motions and transcripts under seal in this case and to continue to close hearings to the public."

A state legislator in Washington, Matt Shea, released information from behind the closed door process going on Nevada.    A Bureau of Land Management investigator Larry Wooten is saying that the Bureau of Land Management operation against the Bundy Ranch was aggressive in nature, with snipers involved, and comments about causing harm to the Bundy's and those supporting them during the protests in April 2014 that led to the April 12th standoff.

An 18-page document dated November 27th was prepared by Wooten and obtained by the "The Oregonian/OregonLive"  and news story written by Maxine Bernstein has been published in recent hours.

Ammon Bundy, one of the third trial defendants,  spoke as quoted above in a video released on Facebook late last night.

Bundy revealed details of the military style operation launched against Bundy Ranch with drones operating at high altitude and cross hairs and marks on aerial pictures.    He spoke of pictures of Cliven Bundy, his father and other members of the family with X's over them on the wall of an FBI office.

He said that the US Attorney's office and lead prosecutor now Acting US Attorney in Las Vegas, Steven Myhre, actively worked to get witnesses to change their testimony to cover up the presence of snipers around Bundy Ranch and the protesters in the area.

Ammon Bundy urged his viewers to focus on the problem of federal control of the land through the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies and not be distracted by revelations of wrongdoing by the federal government.

He said more needs to be done to restore matters to their rightful and Constitutional place.

Bundy was echoing the message he delivered in eastern Oregon during the Oregon Standoff  protest early last year when he urged  local people to organize to retake possession of the land from the federal government through their local county government.

When one sees how deep the deep state and swamp is in Washington, when one realizes that federal control of land is as entrenched as ever in the West as Jim Crow racial policies were in the South, one recalls Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts to end the injustice.

The Republican politician now heading the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, proclaims a great victory when he says plans by Barack Obama to turn large tracts of land into national monuments will be scaled back.

Shouldn't the plans be reversed, turned back 100 percent for starters........

We need more than politics to "drain the swamp" and "Make America Great Again".

At best President Trump is isolated in the White House while bad policy continues.

Ammon Bundy offers us hope and a way forward.

Ammon Bundy Video Message Link 12/14/2017

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  JUDGE RELAXES PRETRIAL RELEASE, EMERGENCY FILING DEMANDS OPEN PROCESS

US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro has relaxed the home detention pre-trial release of three defendants in the third Bunkerville Standoff trial.

In response to a request from Ryan Bundy, Judge Navarro agreed that Ryan, his brother Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne will be free subject to a 9pm to 5am curfew.

Ryan Bundy has also notified the court that he and the other two defendants out on 'pre-trial release' will freely communicate with each other.

Meanwhile, a group called Battle Born Media has filed an emergency motion with the court demanding the release of sealed motions in the case and an open hearing process on the violations of evidence rules by the prosecution.

The closed process now underway over the "Brady violations" by the prosecution in the case will determine the future course of the trial, if any.  Judge Navarro is expected to make her decision next week.

Also, activist Gavin Seim is linking on his Facebook page to a place where documents related to the case, evidence from the case is being leaked.

OREGON STANDOFF:  FEDERAL JUDGE QUASHES RECUSAL FROM DISBARMENT OF MARCUS MUMFORD

A Senior US District Judge from Washington state, John C. Coughenour, has quashed a move by Oregon Standoff defense attorney Marcus Mumford to remove himself from the disbarment process against Mumford.

The top federal judge in Oregon, Michael Mosman, is seeking the disbarment of  Mumford from the federal court in Oregon over his behavior in the first Oregon Standoff trial.

The disbarment move follows the decision by the federal government to dismiss criminal charges against Marcus Mumford, who was tackled, tased and arrested after the not guilty verdicts were read out on October 27th last year.

The federal marshals who descended on him as Mumford argued before a judge for the paperwork confirming that his client, Ammon Bundy, was to be held on charges related to the April 2014 Bunkerville Standoff in Nevada  claimed Mumford was threatening them.

Judge Coughenour agreed to a request by federal prosecutors to drop the criminal charges after Mumford's lawyer asked for communications between the marshals.

Mumford's legal assistant and other defense lawyers said the federal marshals in the courtroom were antagonistic towards him.

Judge Coughenour in his quashing of Mumford's motion for him to recuse himself, wrote of Mumford trying to delay the disbarment proceeding against him.

Coughenour had previously rejected a motion by Marcus Mumford to change the record of the trial, another indication that the judge is hostile to Mumford.

A full evidentiary hearing on the disbarment of Marcus Mumford from Oregon's federal court is set for next month  (January 8th and 9th) in Portland.


(EDITED, UPDATED LATER THURSDAY)

FUNDAMENTALISTS ANONYMOUS FOR ROY MOORE AND THE NEXT TARGET IS......

"the real purpose of the Declaration why they did what they did and why we need to follow their example.   'We have explored the temple of royalty and found that the idol that we have bowed down to has eyes that see not, ears that hear not our prayers and a heart like the nether millstone but we have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone all men alone ought to be obedient, he reigns in Heaven and with a perpetuous eye beholds His subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed upon them, from the rising to the setting sun may His Kingdom come'.

Now I'll tell you something, in this country we have explored the temples built by the Democrat and Republican Party in this country and found that they have idols that do not hear us and do not see us.   We need to move forward with a vision that they had to recognize God, recognize He's on His throne and He is and cares for this country......"

Roy Moore speaks at a campaign rally the eve of the Special Election 12/11/2017

I was the greatest of religious hypocrites and zealots, using God's name in vain.

I'm not a better than you religious hypocrite and zealot anymore, but by God I do believe in the Higher Power.

I am a drunk whose sobriety and sanity depends on God and so I acknowledge the Higher Power.

Roy Moore may not see God the exact same way you or I do, but he is dead on target about politics as usual and about the role of God in society.

I for one believe it is good to acknowledge God as I understand God.

He is the man of the hour.

And with the results now coming in and with the media declaring Doug Jones the winner and President Trump offering congratulations along with Roy Moore not ready to concede in lieu of absentee and overseas ballots, its a good time to reflect some more, be thankful to God, kind and loving to others and avoid being like the lynch mob that went after Judge Moore.   The mob who's ultimate target for elimination is the President of the United States.

I consider Mitch McConnell and his ilk to be part of the picture but even more so I ponder Mitt Romney's involvement in this undermining of Roy Moore with the sin of commission and Mike Pence's undermining Roy Moore with the sin of omission.     I have no power over their approach.

Romney's hostility to Moore calling him a "stain" is in direct proportion to his affinity for the gay marriage forces who sought to prevent a religious freedom bill from being signed in Arizona in 2014.  A bill to protect those with religious convictions who opposed same sex marriages.

Romney joined forces with John McCain and Jeff Flake in getting then Governor Jan Brewer to veto the bill.   The National Football League was said to be instrumental in that push.

A similar situation would unfold in the state of Indiana in 2015 with pressure on then Governor Mike Pence from big business and sports business forces like Tim Cook of Apple.  Pence caved on the religious freedom bill there to protect gay marriage dissenters.

Its amazing how Mike Pence spent days in Alabama with Luther Strange during the primary runoff trying to defeat Roy Moore, but did not do anything like campaign in Alabama with Roy Moore for the special general election.

Pence is really at the end of the day the RINO point man in Washington, ready to step in when and if the mob that got Roy Moore's head on a plate puts President Donald Trump's head on one as well.

Some say that the witch hunt about sexual misconduct has an ultimate target living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.   I strongly suspect they are dead on target.

Congratulate Doug Jones, Mr. President but needless to say those who pushed him over Roy Moore want to get you next.

There are so many delusions I find freedom from when I recover from drunkenness and gain sobriety.

One great delusion is not one caused by drugs or alcohol but one caused by politics.   My political intoxication was living in the delusion of one party being "Conservative" and the other "Liberal".

Its a delusion shared by all kinds of people on both sides fighting each other when we are all just pawns for big business and big banking forces that buy both major parties, that worked together to keep Roy Moore out of the US Senate, who want our great nation to be watered down into a world system.

The Corporatists see low-wage workers moving across borders and rendering them irrelevant in the end.

Their feigned love for social justice and or LGBTQ people and the list goes on is just a sham so they can delude people into being willing partners in a low wage labor scheme where the elites win and the little people lose.

Brexit and Donald Trump stand in their way and both must be vanquished in the end, make no mistake.

But for now lets love God, lets love humanity especially those we want to angry with because they are different from us and lets speak truth about the way things really are in this world.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!




(UPDATED EARLY WEDNESDAY).....

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF UPDATE:  JURY SENT HOME TILL DEC. 20, JUDGE CONSIDERS PROSECUTION VIOLATING RULES, MISTRIAL IS AN OPTION, DEFENSE SEEKS DISMISSAL

US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro decided that the third Bunkerville Standoff trial could not continue today.    Navarro sent the jury home so a review of evidence could be conducted.

She said the prosecution had displayed "coyness" about evidence and cited 14 pieces of evidence including emails from the fired Bureau of Land Management agent Dan Love, who led their operations around Bundy Ranch in early 2014.

Also in the evidence under question is a map detailing the position of government agents in and around Bundy Ranch that would reinforce the defense case and rebut the prosecution's contention that defendants saying they were surrounded by snipers was false.

There's also in the evidence a report saying the FBI  made suggestions to the BLM about handling the situation and indicating that the BLM ignored them.

Bret Whipple, Cliven Bundy's defense lawyer, says he hopes to have the charges dismissed before the jury returns.

Judge Navarro has asked for a response from the prosecution by Friday to a defense motion to dismiss the case.

The defense will then have until Monday to respond to the prosecution.

Judge Navarro allowed a 90 minute public session before the closed session began that will review the 14 pieces of evidence under question.

Navarro spoke of "double jeopardy" in the case and her courtroom statements led mainstream media to bring up the notion of  a mistrial in the case.

Supporters of the defendants like John Lamb see an opening to Judge Navarro dismissing the charges "with prejudice" meaning the charges could not be refiled.

Lamb said in  a video posted today that seven violations of federal evidence rules (Brady violations) were identified in court today.

Lamb said there are more violations that have not been publicly revealed yet.

During the public session Lamb observed the behavior of the lead prosecutor in the case.

 Acting US Attorney Steven Myhre's hand was "shaking at times" as he sat silent in the courtroom, according to Lamb.    The prosecutors were asking for the judge for more time to file their response to the defense motions.

Ammon Bundy spoke outside court today.  He has been released on home detention in the case.

"what we're fighting for is to maintain these principles of freedom that have built up this country the whole reason we have our freedom in the first place.   That's what we're defending....

...we're defending the rights and liberty of the people and not of just this country but of the countries but of all countries that are influenced by the United States and use the United States as an example......"

Ammon Bundy speaking outside federal courthouse in Las Vegas-12/11/2017

Ammon Bundy spoke about his father who chooses to remain in jail until he is truly free and not on "home detention" with GPS monitoring attached to his ankle.   Ammon says his father is holding up well and is strong.

The final decision on whether this trial will go forward or whether there is a mistrial will come next week, the week before Christmas.

That's perfect timing for a controversial decision which could upset the supporters of the defendants or the left leaning elements like the Southern Poverty Law Center and environmentalists who are monitoring the trial in opposition to the defendants.

Further developments between now and then will lead to further posts.

Ammon Bundy outside federal courthouse video

(UPDATED LATE MONDAY, EARLY TUESDAY)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  THE DEMOCRAT JUDGE, THE REPUBLICAN PROSECUTOR AND DOING THE RIGHT THING

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once told a group of Washington DC high school students that his toughest cases were those where "his heart said one thing and the law said something else".

US District Judge Gloria Navarro's "heart" was revealed in her blind acceptance of prosecution pronouncements at the first two Bunkerville Standoff trials, only to be blindsided by the sudden release of torrents of evidence as the third trial got underway.

Navarro went through the first two trials accepting there was no evidence justifying self-defense (the Second Amendment) as a defense for the six defendants, preventing any arguments from the defense lawyers or defendants in that vein.

Two men (Greg Burleson and Todd Engel) ended up being convicted in that process and she sentenced Burleson to 68 years in prison back in July.

She has seen the new evidence and decided it gives the defendants traction in their assertion of self-defense in the case because the new evidence shows a buildup of armed Bureau of Land Management agents around Bundy Ranch and a period from April 5-8, 2014 when the FBI set up a Forward Operating Base,  ran surveillance camera operations and posted 20 plus heavily armed agents ("snipers") in the area.

Cliven Bundy was telling people like internet media host Pete Santilli  (now released in Ohio after cutting a plea deal)  he was surrounded by federal agents and felt threatened and he was right.

His story caused hundreds of people to show up around Bundy Ranch to assert their First Amendment rights with some exercising their Second Amendment rights at the same time.

Getting back to Democrat Judge Navarro's "heart" that's hard to know, but she must be torn to know she's presiding over a trial being dirtied by a prosecutor who's been praised by a Republican AG Jeff Sessions who serves an even more hated political enemy, Donald J. Trump.

What matters to her more?    The law or hating Republicans or Trump and or making her ideology and constituencies on the Left happy.

The Democrat Party has evolved from being the party of racial supremacy to being the party of animal supremacy.

Environmentalists are watching Bunkerville because Cliven Bundy chose to resist their cult of putting "endangered species" ahead of human use and habitation of the land.

And then there's the absurd notion that Cliven Bundy is a racist because he used the word "negro" in his speaking.   This drove the RINO's away from him and is part of their shunning.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has an "investigative reporter" monitoring the trial and associates the peaceful and humble Bundy's with "racists" and "extremists".

One more important matter, that being Judge Navarro's harsh sentence handed down to a lesser figure who entered a guilty plea.  Jerry DeLemus was co-chair of Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire during last year's primary, but he also spent some time around Bundy Ranch helping to secure the area.

DeLemus wanted to withdraw his guilty plea, but couldn't.  Prosecutors asked for a six year sentence, but Navarro gave him 15 months more (87 months).    She branded him a "vigilante bully" at his sentencing.

Does Judge Gloria Navarro have any remorse or regret for that in light of the new evidence?

More on Jerry DeLemus later on in the Republican side of this story.

On the other hand we have the lead prosecutor, Acting US Attorney Steven Myrhe, who I call the Republican prosecutor because he was roundly endorsed by the Republican US Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a July 12th visit to Las Vegas.

Sessions praised Myrhe's "leadership" in the case saying he was "standing up and defending the office and the principles of the law".

Its become very clear in recent weeks that Myhre withheld evidence from the defense and tarnished the office and the principles of the law. 

Myhre has been over the top bombastic throughout the trials describing the defendants as the "most dangerous of criminals" as Ryan Bundy put it in a recent media interview.

Myhre asserted at the beginning of the current trial that the Bunkerville Standoff case is about "law and order", something Republicans have been talking about since the end of the 1960's when Richard Nixon pilfered the issue from third party presidential candidate George Wallace to get his voters into the GOP camp.

Wallace's "law and order" notion came out of the race riots of the 1960's.    He was Alabama governor in 1963 when Birmingham's  Eugene "Bull" Connor believed he was on the side of "law and order" putting down non-violent protests over the "Jim Crow" racial segregation and subjugation laws in the Southern states with his dogs and water cannon.

In Cliven Bundy's fight against "Desert Tortoise Supremacy", remember the grazing fee controversy came out of the Bureau of Land Management's decision to put desert tortoises first in land use.

Myhre claims he is on the side of "law and order" and that no argument about First or Second Amendment rights or about water rights etc. from the defendants is relevant.

The Republican Party postures as "law and order" every election cycle.   I saw it this last election cycle here in Pennsylvania with  candidates for judge and prosecutor alike talking tough and hailing endorsements from law enforcement organizations, who comprise a large well paid and well pensioned cadre of taxpayer financed employees.

The GOP may not go for the teacher union and government employee union support in other sectors, but they go for law enforcement.

In at least one "detention hearing" in the Bunkerville case,  Myhre has gone so far as to associate the accused with real cop killers.   Two people who came and hung out like groupies at Bunkerville ended up in Las Vegas later and they murdered two Las Vegas police officers.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and federal law enforcement have been rough and aggressive towards the defendants and the people who show in support to protest at the courthouse.

Speaking of law enforcement and killing, though,  I have to go back to Oregon and LaVoy Finicum.    The FBI fired the first shots that night likely causing the shrapnel wound to Ryan Bundy, who chose to keep it as "evidence" refusing medical treatment at the time.  

( Bundy is now released on home detention in the Bunkerville trial and there was talk of him getting that medical treatment now and getting the shrapnel removed, perhaps to make it evidence at the planned trial of  the FBI agent accused of lying about firing the shots.)

In the end though it was Oregon State Police snipers who were part of the FBI operation called a "felony traffic stop" who gunned down LaVoy.      Many Oregon sheriff's departments supported the operations against the Oregon Standoff protesters and the deadly operation that killed LaVoy Finicum.

The Oregon State Sheriff's Association backed the law enforcement effort fully in response to the statement of one sheriff, Glenn Palmer of Grant County, suggesting a negotiated solution to the protest instead of violence.

The sheriff's association recently got what it asked Washington for when President Trump nominated the temporary US Attorney who was appointed by the Obama Administration, Billy Williams, as the permanent US Attorney in Oregon.  Williams office prosecuted the Oregon Standoff protestors.

And then there's Jerry DeLemus, Marine and political activist from New Hampshire, whose wife was a state legislator and who heads the 9/12 Movement there.   Many politically active people in the GOP there took a stand on behalf of Jerry seeking a pardon from President Trump.

So far what they've gotten as best I estimate is the transfer of DeLemus to the Fort Devens federal prison in Massachusetts  near his home in New Hampshire enabling his wife to visit him with more ease.

A recent arrival to join him at the prison was Anthony Weiner who's serving a 21 to 27 month sentence.  Of course we all know who's getting out first unless someone decides to free Mr. DeLemus from prison.

Dr. Martin Luther King forced the Democrats to choose between their "Sheets" Byrd wing and their desegregation "civil rights" wing in the early 1960's.    One way he tried to do that was by staying behind bars in Albany, Georgia in 1962.

Cliven Bundy has chosen to remain behind bars even though he was offered pre-trial release to "home detention".    Bundy's view is that until the charges are dropped, until he is found not guilty he is not truly free or enjoying liberty.    He's waiting for "liberty and justice for all" to apply in the Bunkerville case.

Are the Republicans on the side of the farmers and ranchers being driven out of business by the Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies, on the side of the Second Amendment supporters who came out to help the Bundy family at Bunkerville or does the "law and order" side of the GOP come first?

The Republicans in power at the Department of Interior like Secretary Ryan Zinke or Attorney General Jeff Sessions should drop charges against the Bunkerville defendants.   Carol Bundy, Cliven's wife, says they have that power.

President Trump also has the power of pardon to bring liberty and justice to this matter.

The trial resumes again Monday December 11th and we shall see what will happen next.

(UPDATED AND FINALIZED THURSDAY DECEMBER 7TH THROUGH SATURDAY DECEMBER 9TH)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  JOE O'SHAUGHNESSY GETS HOME DETENTION RELEASE

The last of those held ahead of trial in connection with the April 2014 Bunkerville Standoff near Bundy Ranch,  Joe O;Shaughnessy, was given pretrial home detention release after a decision from the judge presiding in the Oregon Standoff case,  US District Judge Anna J. Brown in Portland.

US District Judge Gloria M. Navarro in Las Vegas, the Bunkerville judge, granted release but Judge Brown in Portland needed to sign off.

The stipulation is that once O'Shaughnessy's trial in Las Vegas is done he is back in custody within 48 hours for another detention hearing.   His trial is supposed to happen 30 days after the current third trial ends.

Late Tuesday afternoon Joe O'Shaughnessy was released.

Cliven Bundy remains in jail until there is liberty and justice in the case.

The third Bunkerville Standoff trial of Cliven Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and Ryan Payne resumes next Monday December 11th.

(UPDATED EARLY WEDNESDAY)

BUNKERVILLE STANDOFF:  MEL AND DAVE BUNDY, TWO OTHER BUNKERVILLE ACCUSED RELEASED, CLIVEN BUNDY OPTS TO STAY IN JAIL, BEARS EARS AND THE BUNDYS

"You don't get hugs like this in prison.......If you do you better worry about it......"

Mel  Bundy speaks as he is released to home detention from the federal courthouse in Las Vegas 12/4/2017

A packed courtroom in Las Vegas today heard that the last four men being held ahead of trial without bail will be released  (Dave Bundy, Mel Bundy, Jason Woods and Joe O'Shaughnessy).    They have spent some 21 months locked up as if they were murders and or terrorists.

These four men were considered the Tier 3 defendants facing the "least serious" charges.

Their trial set to begin 30 days after the current trial is finished.

The men began leaving the courthouse late today with Dave Bundy first, then Jason Woods.

Later Mel Bundy emerged from the courthouse at nightfall came.

Joe O'Shaugnessy's release is contingent on agreement from the Oregon Standoff judge, US District Judge Anna. J, Brown in Portland.

Videos of the three releases are on the "JGrady" account You Tube.

Of course as mentioned before, Cliven Bundy has opted to stay in jail to remind us that there is no liberty and justice here yet.   The prosecution of those released to home detention continues and home detention is not liberty and justice.

The decision by President Trump to cut 85 percent from the Bear Ears National Monument proposed by former President Obama involves land in Nevada around Bundy Ranch.   During the summer former Republican Congressman from Montana, now Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke came to the area and talked with neighbors of the Bundys.   BUT ZINKE REFUSED TO MEET BUNDY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO WANTED TO HAND HIM A LETTER ABOUT THE FAMILY'S CASE.

Here's what Cliven Bundy's wife Carol had to say about that in a video posted on the J. Grady You Tube account on August 20th.

"Mr. Zinke, you came to the Bundy Ranch and toured my ranch area.  You never reached out to us.  You said it was now out of your jurisdiction.  You were right.  We are part of the sovereign state of Nevada and you have no business in this great state.  However, you claim over 89 percent of our land.   Who put us in the judicial courts.  You did.  And who can take us out of those courts.  You can sir.  You can drop all charges and it will no longer be in the judicial system.  Shame on you...."

(UPDATED LATE MONDAY, EARLY TUESDAY)

CLIVEN BUNDY CHOOSES TO REMAIN IN PRISON BECAUSE HE'S NOT FREE UNTIL HIS PERSECUTORS BACK DOWN

There's plenty of news coming out of Las Vegas about the home detention release of those currently on trial and still facing trial in connection with the Bunkerville Standoff case, but Cliven Bundy has decided to stay behind bars noting that home detention is not freedom.

His wife, Carol Bundy, spoke to the news media Friday afternoon outside the federal courthouse in Las Vegas as defendant Ryan Payne left the building going to his home detention.

Here is an excerpt of what she had to say:

"My family made a stand in 2014, made a peaceful protest and we exercised our First and Second Amendment rights, two years later they're picked up on the street they've been innocent men.   They're in jail for two years, they've been treated, they've been treated poorly.

Let me tell you how they bring em from here to there (jail).

They shackle them, they shackle their feet, they put a chain around their waist, they put a box between their hands, they tie their hands tight.    They put them in the back of their vans and they drive with helicopters flying overhead with cars in the front and in the back and they drive very unsafely, not only for the men sliding back and forth inside those vans, but for anybody else that's in the road.   They endanger every single person.   This is America today...."

She was describing the risk taking high speed convoy that whirlwind's its way through the streets of Las Vegas every day involving federal, state and local police transporting the prisoners back and forth from jail to the courthouse.

Who have they got in there, the leadership of Islamic State?

Carol Bundy had more to say and you can watch it at the link at the bottom.

Her husband remains in jail and will continue to show up at the trial in his jail uniform to remind us there is no freedom in America when citizens who have exercised their First and Second Amendment rights are not free, whether they're Cliven Bundy in jail or the others under home detention in this trial and the Bunkerville Standoff case.

Republican endorsed (by AG Jeff Sessions) prosecutor Acting US Attorney Steve Myhre's case falls apart as he fails to give the defense all the evidence shamelessly before Democrat US District Judge Gloria Navarro.

The Uniparties know their house of cards is falling yet they cannot give up and set these people free and pardon those who entered guilty pleas or were found guilty or who made plea deals with prosecutors while evidence was withheld from defense lawyers.

In 1962 Dr. Martin Luther King tried to stay in jail leading a civil rights protest in Albany, Georgia but the Democrats had to reduce public attention and make believe things were OK so Bobby Kennedy sent a Justice Department aide down to bail him out.

I think the Uniparty is trying to shut down the outrage over this case today just like the political machine went out to shut down MLK back then with this wave of  "home detention releases"..

Cliven Bundy is not letting them get away with it.

Carol Bundy speaks to media in Vegas 12-1-17