In April 2014, hundreds of armed protesters gathered at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada to take a stand against the federal government.
The post Four Years Ago, Hundreds of Armed Protesters Stood Up to Tyrannical US Gov’t Overreach—And Won appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has long claimed he was wronged by the Obama administration’s overly aggressive prosecution of him and his family in 2014 over his refusal to pay bogus grazing fees he said he never owed.
Turns out he was exactly right.
As reported by The Daily Caller, court documents unsealed last week provide details about how a team of prosecutors assigned to convict Bundy and his sons Ammon and Ryan, along with family friend Ryan W. Payne, following an armed standoff near their Nevada ranch failed to hand over exculpatory evidence to a federal court.
As such, their case ended in a mistrial Dec. 20 after U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ruled that the prosecutors violated the defendants’ civil rights after withholding evidence that would have supported their case.
Now, Navarro is considering tossing the case out altogether “with prejudice,” a ruling which would block prosecutors from retrying the case. A decision is expected Jan. 8, The New York Times reported.
Two earlier trials against other defendants ended in hung juries, the Times noted further.
Among the exculpatory evidence the prosecution failed to turn over was a video taken from within the Bundy range during the standoff by a federal informant, evidence that the FBI had agents involved in the standoff, and a threat assessment of the Bundys that the government drafted.
“There were approximately 3,000 pages that were provided to us only after we started trial,” Bret D. Whipple, one of Cliven Bundy’s lawyers, told the Times. “I personally have never seen anything like this, especially in a case of such importance.”
“We’ve told everyone all along, ‘the truth will set us free,’” said Angie Bundy, the wife of Ryan Bundy. “It was the lies we’re worried about.”
Other evidence withheld from the court was an assessment by government officials that the Bundys were not violent people. “She cited all of that,” Angie Bundy said of Navarro. “At this point, I don’t know what kind of case they have against us.”
The Oregonian reported that attorneys for Ryan Payne requested in a July 5 email that prosecutors turn over all threat assessments prepared before the 2014 standoff, but prosecutors characterized the defendants’ frequent push for the assessments as one in a “long list of frivolous and vexatious pleadings.” As such, prosecutors withheld those assessments until the defendants were actually in court and in the midst of their trial. The existence of the assessments was confirmed by a government witness under cross-examination.
Failure to hand over the assessments was “just one example of the prosecution team’s callous disregard of its constitutional obligations to share with the defense any potentially favorable evidence, according to Payne’s lawyers,” The Oregonian reported.
(Related: REPORT: BLM used ‘incredible bias’ during overly aggressive RAID of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.)
For more than 20 years Cliven Bundy has grazed his cattle on federal land in Nevada but refused to pay grazing fees, insisting he was not obligated to do so because he had inherited water rights on the land. In response, the BLM, during a heavily-armed raid, seized his cattle, killing some of them, in an attempt to force him to pay. The Bundys were supported immediately by dozens of armed neighbors who showed up to help protect and defend them.
In April 2014, Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, wrote a column that was critical of the BLM for the way its agents handled the standoff with Bundy, noting prophetically that “the federal government is out of control yet again.”
A subsequent report in December substantiated Adams’ claims. BLM special agent Larry Wooten issued a report indicating that government agents very likely broke federal laws and used “incredible bias” against Bundy and his family during the incident while engaging in tactics of intimidation during the operation.
Via Natural News
The post Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy vindicated after federal judge declares mistrial appeared first on Intellihub.
[image: The Sleuth Journal]
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While Ryan did not say it, he demonstrated something — there is no signature on the Constitution representing the federal government. I do not know that I’ve ever heard it put more clearly than Ryan Bundy revealed it on January 20 2018. It’s foolish for me to try to approximate in words the spirit which filled that building in Paradise, so I’ll let it go after meekly saying that an uplifting momentum is growing around the Bundy movement and all of their family members and friends are like solid gold nuggets in the American lands; a gold of the human soul which shines brightly around their faces like a blessed aura, a radiance of innocent beauty.
The Mental Militia salutes the Bundy family and their friends like Shawna Cox the Hammonds, Jeanette Finicum, Dan and Roxsanna Ryan, et al. Their faith is indomitable and is inspiring.
Speakers at the rally Included:
Cliven Bundy
Ryan Bundy
Andrea Parker
Billy Hill
Chris Briels
Sen. Jennifer Fielder
Shawna Cox
Dan Ryan
Roxsanna Ryan
Videos by Elias Alias, Founder of The Mental Militia.
The Bundy’s Arrive in Paradise, MT.
Senator Fielder and Roxsanna Ryan Opening
Ryan Bundy in Paradise Pt. 1
Ryan Bundy in Paradise Pt. 2
Ex-Fire Chief from Oregon Chris Briels
Senator Fielder
Shawna Cox
Cliven Bundy Pt. 1
Cliven Bundy Pt. 2
The post Freedom and Property Rally: The Cliven Bundy Story (VIDEO) appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.
The court"s decision marks an end to the federal case against the Bundy family for their role in the 2014 armed standoff over cattle-grazing rights in Nevada.
The lead BLM investigator in the Bundy Ranch case has blown the whistle exposing "far-reaching misconduct, recklessness and unrestrained antipathy toward the family."
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is officially set to go on trial this week for his role in leading a 2014 armed standoff against federal agents that became a rallying point for militia groups challenging U.S. government authority in the American West. As Reuters notes, jury selection is slated to start later this morning in a U.S. District Court in Las Vegas after being postponed due to the mass shooting on October 1st that claimed 58 lives.
Jury selection in the latest trial was slated to begin on Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The proceedings were postponed for three weeks after an unrelated mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 in which 58 people were killed.
Standing trial with Cliven Bundy, 71, are the two sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who led last year’s Oregon occupation, and a third co-defendant, Ryan Payne, a Montana resident linked by prosecutors to a militia group called Operation Mutual Aid.
A fourth co-defendant, internet blogger and radio host Peter Santilli, pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to conspiracy and faces a possible six-year prison term.
Six lesser-known participants in the Nevada ranch showdown went on trial as a group earlier this year with two men found guilty. One of the two men was sentenced to 68 years in prison and the other is still awaiting sentencing. Two of the four remaining defendants were retried and acquitted, and two others pleaded guilty last week to obstructing a court order. Those two each face up to a year in prison when sentenced.
As you may recall, Bundy"s Nevada revolt was sparked by a court-ordered roundup of his cattle by government agents over his refusal to pay fees required to graze the herd on federal land. Hundreds of supporters, many heavily armed, rallied to Bundy’s cause demanding that his livestock be returned. Outnumbered law enforcement officers ultimately retreated rather than risk bloodshed. No shots were ever fired.
The face-off marked a flashpoint in long-simmering tensions over federal control of public lands in the West and was a precursor to Bundy’s two sons leading an armed six-week occupation of a federal wildlife center in Oregon two years later, in 2016 (see: "Now Is The Time To Stand Up": Armed Activists, Militiamen Seize Federal Wildlife Refuge Office In Oregon). Here"s a recap of the events leading up the Oregon standoff:
On Saturday, militants seized a remote government outpost following a protest by hundreds of angry citizens.
It all started back in 2001 when Dwight Hammond and his son Steven set fire to leased government land in what they said was an effort to beat back invasive plant species and - ironically - prevent wildfires. They set more fires in 2006 and were later convicted of arson.
Both men served time in prison but a judge eventually determined that their sentences were too light and ordered them back to jail.
"After the peaceful rally was completed today, a group of outside militants drove to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, where they seized and occupied the refuge headquarters. A collective effort from multiple agencies is currently working on a solution. For the time being please stay away from that area. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Please maintain a peaceful and united front and allow us to work through this situation," Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward said, in a statement. The elder Bundy weighed in as well, noting that the occuption isn"t “exactly what [he] thought should happen." "But I didn’t know what to do,” he added. “You know, if the Hammonds wouldn’t stand, if the sheriff didn’t stand, then, you know, the people had to do something. And I guess this is what they did decide to do. I wasn’t in on that.”
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, along with five other people, were previously charged with criminal conspiracy in the takeover of the Wildlife Refuge though that trial ended with the acquittal last year of all seven.
Longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone will petition his former boss, President Donald Trump, to pardon the ringleader of a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents.
Stone announced on Twitter Friday night that he would appeal to Trump on behalf of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who will stand trial Oct. 10 for incitinga rebellion against Bureau of Land Management officials that attempted to stop Bundy from illegally grazing his cattle on federal land.
I will return to Las Vegas on Sept 15 to call on @realDonaldTrump to pardon the Bundys and their supporters
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) September 8, 2017
Bundy was arrested in February 2016 on weapons charges and a conspiracy charge to interfere with a federal officer.
Via Daily Caller
In an exclusive interview with The Free Thought Project, a self-proclaimed constitutional rights activist is speaking out about his ordeal with Nevada police after he refused to tell an officer his date of birth. He said that in addition to being arrested, he has been harassed ever since.
Joshua Martinez said he became interested in Cliven Bundy’s ongoing conflict with the Bureau of Land Management back in April 2014. He said Bundy’s problems led him to become a student of the Constitution.
In December 2015, in a show of support for the Bundy family and their involvement with a stand-off with the FBI in Oregon that led to the death of LaVoy Finicum, Martinez raised LaVoy Finicum’s cattle brand, AKA the “LaVoy Finicum” flag on the Nevada federal courthouse steps.
Then in January, Martinez said he began passing out pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution and jury notification pamphlets. It was his way of being a good citizen, “but in the eyes of the government we rattle their cage and they don’t appreciate that,” he told TFTP.
Martinez did not get arrested for passing out the Constitution, but somehow he became a person of interest to courthouse officials and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The FBI and the U.S. Marshalls took notice as well. Martinez said it all started in February when he attempted to be a spectator at some of the court proceedings involving defendants who were being tried for their role in the now-infamous occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
But Martinez was more interested in being able to attend the proceedings without having to identify himself. His current contention is with forced identification. He went to the courthouse on Feb. 6, but was not allowed entry on the basis that he did not have a valid form of identification.
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First, the courthouse security, on behalf of the U.S. Marshalls, informed Martinez that he was not allowed to enter and observe the court proceedings without a valid identification. Asking to speak with a Marshall directly, he was met with several unidentified U.S. Marshalls who promptly informed Martinez he couldn’t come in without an ID.
Martinez wanted to sue the U.S. Marshalls for discriminating against him on the basis that he did not have identification and disallowing him from observing the court’s proceedings. But he said he had a problem. He had no idea who the Marshalls were who would not let him come inside.
READ MORE: This is What"s Wrong Police: Cop Says He has "No Choice but to F**king Pull Over Black People"
Martinez said he decided to go back on Feb. 7 in an attempt to identify the very people who told him he couldn’t come inside without an ID.
Instead of obtaining the named of the Marshalls, Martinez was arrested. He said he passed through the metal detector and was in possession of a valid state-issued ID just in case, but after presenting his ID, they ran his ID and then informed him the “U.S. Marshalls don’t want you in the courtroom.” He and his friends left the building and sat on one of the courthouse benches outside.
“It’s all about conditioning us to live as slaves,” Martinez said. “when an officer gives us a command we have to do it. That’s all it’s about!”
Martinez, along with a few of his friends, were sitting outside the courthouse on public property when police arrived and swarmed him. Apparently, someone inside the courthouse called police about his attempts to get information on the U.S. Marshalls.
Metro PD was called and when they arrived, they began to question Martinez, who had already identified himself. They pressed him for more information, demanding his date of birth, a detail he was not willing to offer them.
Martinez said his rationale was that since he had committed no crime, he was not suspected of having committed a crime, and since he was not being detained, he was therefore under no obligation to cooperate with police.
Patriots such as Martinez seem to understand that if the so-called authority police possess is not challenged, more individuals will have their civil rights violated, such as attempting to go about their lives without having to carry an ID.
“Hiibel vs. Nevada states first and last name is required and nothing more. It doesn’t say anything about giving a date of birth or anything else,” Martinez said, as justification for why he refused to tell the officers his date-of-birth.
As can be heard in the video, one of the officers told another that Martinez was not under investigation, and was not trespassing. However, even though no crime was committed, Metro PD continued to ‘investigate’ further, eventually deciding to arrest Martinez.
READ MORE: This Guy Has Been Stopped 14 Times By Cops, For Nothing. He Finally Had Enough.
Martinez was charged with “obstruction of justice,” even though no crime had been committed. He simply did not want to cooperate with police by providing any further identification and was arrested for it.
“Body cam footage of my arrest in front of the federal courthouse in Las Vegas Nevada on February 7, 2017. In the video, you can hear one officer inform the officer who made contact with me that I was not trespassed and that I was on public property. Reasonable suspicion was met when they learned I was not breaking any laws.”
Police often charge individuals with “obstruction” when all other attempts to criminalize an otherwise innocent individual are made. The charges lead to innocent people being arrested, fined, jailed (sometimes for months), and when they go to court, those charges are then often dropped.
If citizens truly have civil liberty, they should be allowed to come and go as they please without arousing the suspicions of police or government workers. But when everyone is seen as a suspect, it is easy for police to infringe on citizens’ rights to film in public, walk where they please, or even enjoy a sitting on a bench on public property.
A new documentary titled “What Happened In Vegas” was born out of such infringements. Director Ramsey Denison was assaulted and arrested after he called 911 to report an out-of-control police officer. Instead of being hailed as a concerned citizen looking out for the civil rights of others, he was quickly marked as a suspect and taken to jail.
It was only after that experience that Denison realized there was a systemic problem with Metro PD infringing on citizens’ rights and decided to detail what he sess as an out of control police department.
Since Martinez’s arrest he says he has been further harassed, not only by the FBI, but also by the counter-terrorism unit inside Metro PD. When asked why the government thinks he is a threat, Martinez said he feels it is because he has refused to get a driver’s license, and has produced many YouTube videos encouraging others to follow his example.
Martinez also said he gets targeted because he uses court case law in his videos, and encourages citizens to know their rights and to get educated. Even with being an advocate for the Constitution, he has been labeled a “sovereign citizen,” but says nothing could be further from the truth. Martinez told TFTP he was born on an Air Force base to a very patriotic family, and his dad was a member of the Air Force.
READ MORE: Thanks to the Feds, 2017 Cannabis Cup Has No Cannabis — Despite Being 100% Legal
“My main objection is government overreach and officials operating outside the confines of the Constitution…I believe we should keep our government in check,” Martinez said, adding the harassment he’s received has even followed him to his workplace.
Martinez described the second time he has been arrested in the last few months:
“They arrested me for possession of a concealed firearm. I was at the door. I’m a door host at a nightclub. I was checking ID’s at the door and was approached by three plains clothes men who came to me and asked me for a Sheriff’s Card (another permit he objects to…something Martinez calls an “adult work permit”). At first, I didn’t know who they were…”
Martinez said one of the officers pretended to be interested in his plainly visible gun—he carries openly per Nevada law—but then asked if he had a concealed carry permit. Martinez said he was carrying openly and he didn’t need one. At that point, he was arrested for “possession of a concealed firearm,” which is a felony in Nevada.
This is the type of treatment Martinez said he now has to live with, for speaking out and attempting to enter a courthouse without a valid ID. He said because he has been labeled as a “sovereign citizen,” he is now now one of the government’s targets, and he is facing felony charges as a result.
Martinez said that in his mind, the state of Nevada has a serious problem with permitting. “To be a cashier at a 7-Eleven you need four different forms of identification—a Sheriff’s Card, a TAM card (alcohol education certification), a health card (food handler’s card), and a regular form of identification,” He said.
“Permits, licensing, that’s my beef with the system,” Martinez said. Now he has to go to court to prove he is no danger to society and that because he was legally open-carrying his firearm, he should not be convicted of as a felon who would not longer have the right to keep and bear arms.
The government wants you to believe that this whole case is about Cliven refusing to pay his grazing fees. It wants you to believe that the Bundy’s are anti-government . It wants you to believe that they are a bunch of crazies that keep picking fights with the Government for no reason. It now wants you to believe that they are domestic terrorists simply because they had the courage to stand up to the Government.
What the Government does NOT want you to know is that EVERYTHING the Bundy’s have done is protected by the Constitution. They broke NO Constitutional Laws.
The Bundy’s believe that the Constitution always has been the Supreme Law of the Land, which it is, no matter what the Government tries to tell us now. The Bundy’s do believe in the need of a Federal Government, but the kind that our Founding Father’s established; a LIMITED government of the People, by the People, and for the People. Not the government we have today, where the People have no rights and no say.
The government does NOT want you to know that Cliven paid his grazing fees for years, until one day the government changed the contracts, effectively putting his livelihood in grave danger. Cliven tried to negotiate the terms but the government refused.
It doesn’t want you to know that Cliven was not allowed to pay his fees until AFTER he agreed to the new contract, which he didn’t agree with. Still, they refused to negotiate the terms in order to come to some type of compromise so that he could pay them.
THAT is when Cliven refused to sign the papers and made his payments to his County instead. Cliven tried, after being screwed over by the government, to still do the right thing.
This is what led to the incident in 2014 in Nevada.
When they saw the very same tactics being used against another family in Oregon, they stood up for that family and came to their aid. That is what the incident in 2015 in Oregon was about.
The government does NOT want you to know that, for years, it has been doing the same thing to landowners all across the west. The Bundy’s tried to open the Nation’s eyes as to what was going on behind the scenes. The Bundy’s tried for decades to go through the proper channels, to work things out with our elected officials, but got no response at all.
So, this case is not so much about land and grazing rights and unpaid grazing fees as it is about a government that has gone completely rogue.
If these men are found guilty, here is what it means for YOU, personally. Here is what’s REALLY on trial…..
The US Constitution- the very one the judges take an oath to uphold and defend, the one that protects We the People- will no longer be allowed in a court of law. Not even mentioned in a court of law. Let that sink in. We will have NOTHING to protect us from our corrupt government!! Nothing.
No more First Amendment rights. No more protesting or disagreeing with the Government or any of its agencies or employees. . If you and one other person says something the government doesn’t like or agree with, you can be charged with conspiracy and sent to prison.
Any comment or “like” on Facebook or other social media platforms can and will be used against you. Media (network or independent) who covers a story that the government does not want covered, will be arrested and sent to prison. If the government wants something you have, you no longer have any right to tell it no or you will be sent to prison.
Your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is all but gone. If you are legally and lawfully carrying a weapon and a member of law enforcement is nearby, you will be charged with threatening an officer. Let’s face it, since we now live in a police state, there is law enforcement everywhere.
You will no longer be allowed to defend yourself in court. You will no longer have the right to face your accuser(s).You will no longer be able to tell the truth, the WHOLE truth and nothing BUT the truth. If others show up to testify on your behalf, they will be threatened with arrest for speaking up for you.
A government witness who wasn’t even a witness to the crime’s testimony is more valid than that of a “lay” witness that was there to witness it first hand. Basically, if the government decides you’re guilty, you are guilty.
No more right to bail or a speedy trial.
No more being presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
There will be no way to hold our government or any of its agencies accountable for anything.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. The bottom line is, if these men are found guilty, we will no longer have the safety and security that the Constitution gives us. We will no longer be in charge of the government but it will, once and for all, be in charge of us and there will be no turning back.
The Bundy’s, and all who stood with them, have told the truth. They have done everything out in the open. They have been begging for public attention to this case and their grievances. They are doing all they can to uphold our Constitution.
On the other hand, the federal government has lied, repeatedly. They don’t want media coverage and won’t allow cameras in the courtrooms. They won’t respond to any grievances. They are blatantly disregarding the Constitution and want you to believe that if you support it then you are committing a crime!!. And, yet, who’s on trial? Who, really, is fighting FOR us all ,here? Who has YOUR best interests at heart?
Someone said it best (I believe Sandy Anderson III) …”If not now-when? If not us-who? If not this-what?” Out of millions of American citizens, a handful of people had the courage and integrity to stand up. It’s truly heartbreaking to see the majority leaving them to stand alone. To fight for people who can’t be bothered to fight for themselves.
What is it going to take for American’s to wake up and see that we are about to lose everything that matters? When will *YOU* finally stand up and get involved ? What is it going to take to get you to start caring about what’s happening?
Your time is seriously running out to decide which side you’re with: Those fighting FOR your rights or those doing all they can to take them away.
If you believe in the mission of Oath Keepers, to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, please consider making a donation to support our work. You can donate HERE.
