In 2014 dozens of armed ranchers and militia members rushed to the outskirts of the Bundy ranch as a show of solidarity with the family there entrenched against the federal government and its intervention. The second “Sagebrush Rebellion” was underway.
Eventually Bundy was arrested, along with his sons, for their standoff with police, and there were subsequent standoffs, including most famously Ammon Bundy’s 2016 takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. But in the case of Cliven and sons, the gov’t just lost.
A federal judge Monday threw out criminal charges against Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy, his two sons and a co-defendant in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff, citing “flagrant misconduct” by prosecutors and the FBI in not disclosing evidence to the defense before and during trial.
“The government’s conduct in this case was indeed outrageous,” U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro ruled. “There has been flagrant misconduct, substantial prejudice and no lesser remedy is sufficient.”
The judge issued her ruling before a packed courtroom with nearly 100 spectators. As Navarro dismissed the case, Cliven Bundy’s lawyer put his arm around his client. Supporters in the public gallery held hands, wiped tears from their eyes and hugged.
The dismissal with prejudice, meaning a new trial can’t be pursued, marked an embarrassing nadir for the federal government, which now has failed to convict the Bundys in two major federal cases stemming from separate armed standoffs.
It all began over the Federal government’s ownership of land and the rights of ranchers to allow their cattle to graze on those lands. The Right Scoop brought you the story when it first broke in 2014.
For more than 20 years, Bundy, a Nevada farmer, has allowed his cattle to graze on federal land, and his main contention is that the government doesn’t really own the land. The Bureau of Land Management finally started rounding up the cows this weekend. They initially wanted to sell them at auction in Utah, but Gov. Gary Herbert argued that the whole controversy needed to be contained to Nevada. He succeeded, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, but Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is still pissed about the whole affair.
“No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans,” Sandoval said in a Tuesday statement. “The BLM needs to reconsider its approach to this matter and act accordingly.”
He took particular issue with the government’s decision to establish a specific area in which residents could protest.
“Most disturbing to me is the BLM’s establishment of a ‘First Amendment Area’ that tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution,” he said in the statement.
A park service spokeswoman told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the area was intended to do just the opposite. Roads had to be closed to protect safety during the cattle removal, she said, but the service wanted to make sure protestors still had an area to gather.
Here is an interview that Glenn Beck conducted with Bundy at the time.
This doesn’t mean that the entire story is over, but for the moment, Cliven is a free man after three years in prison.