Thread: Armed militia group attempting to overthrow the government

July 19, 2016 - 9:28am
Updated July 19, 2016 - 5:37pm

Oregon refuge occupier pleads guilty; Bundys stay in jail

Ryan Bundy, son of Cliven Bundy, speaks during a rally near Bunkerville, Monday, April 7, 2014, 2014. (John Locher/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Ryan Bundy (Iron County Utah Jail)





Previous coverage

See a timeline of events leading up Cliven Bundy's conflict with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. Also, see the most recent reports involving Bundy and his family.


By STEVEN DUBOIS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


PORTLAND, Ore. — A military veteran accused of taking leadership roles in two armed standoffs involving federal authorities pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oregon to a conspiracy charge and is expected to do the same involving charges in Nevada, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, a federal judge decided to keep brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy behind bars as they await their September trial in Portland on conspiracy charges.

The brothers have been accused of leading the standoffs at a wildlife refuge in Oregon and their family ranch in Nevada.

At the federal courthouse in Portland, Ryan Payne of Anaconda, Montana, acknowledged that he conspired with others to prevent Interior Department employees from doing their jobs this winter during the occupation of the Malheur National Wildfire Refuge.

In a plea deal that included talks with prosecutors in Nevada, the U.S. attorney’s office in Oregon recommended that Payne’s likely 3½-year prison sentence run at the same time as the punishment he could receive for his role in a 2014 standoff with federal agents at a Nevada ranch owned by Cliven Bundy, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said.

In Nevada, the deal calls for Payne to plead guilty to three charges, with one involving the brandishing of a firearm that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years, Gabriel said.

Nevada prosecutors plan to recommend 12 years in prison, and Payne’s defense will push for less, Gabriel said.

Payne, 32, told U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown in Portland that his first adult decision was joining the military, where he took an oath to uphold the Constitution.

Payne said he came to Oregon last year to do that by defending two ranchers he believes were wrongly imprisoned for setting fires.

He and others, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy, occupied the refuge from Jan. 2 until their arrests nearly a month later. A few holdouts continued the armed protest until Feb. 11.

“In pursuing that effort, I have come to understand that folks who work for the government perceived my actions as intimidating and threatening,” Payne said in court.

Payne was arrested during a traffic stop while traveling with Arizona rancher Robert “LaVoy” Finicum and others to a community meeting off the refuge.

Payne complied with officers and left the vehicle.

Finicum and the others drove away, and Finicum was fatally shot by authorities at a roadblock.

Gabriel said Payne, the eighth man to plead guilty in the Oregon case, took a leadership role in the occupation, coordinating armed guards and providing tactical training.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18 but that date could get pushed back based on developments in Nevada, where authorities say Payne recruited gunmen and led an armed assault on federal officers who attempted to round-up the Bundys’ cattle near Bunkerville.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy are also charged in that case, and would have likely been sent to a Nevada jail if U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones had not decided Tuesday to keep them in custody at a downtown Portland jail.

Jones previously granted pretrial release to many of the men and women indicted on conspiracy charges in the case. But in a written opinion, Jones said the Bundys are not good candidates for release because the confrontations show they believe they are justified in refusing federal orders and might not appear for trial Sept. 7.

“More dangerously, they may attempt to recruit another standoff or occupation,” he wrote.

The judge also cited what jailhouse deputies described as an effort by Ryan Bundy to escape.

A search of his cell on April 8 yielded a rope made with multiple sheets tied together, authorities said.

“I reject his excuse that he was practicing braiding,” Jones wrote.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/ne...ndys-stay-jail

Oregon

Travis Cox Becomes 9th Refuge Occupier To Plead Guilty

by Conrad Wilson Follow OPB | July 20, 2016 1:16 p.m. | Portland

---

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupier Travis Cox on Wednesday became the ninth defendant to plead guilty to charges that he conspired to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs.

Prosecutors recommended Cox serve eight months of home detention for his role in the occupation. They also said they would like him to receive credit for the two months of pretrial detention he already served.

FULL COVERAGE

An Occupation In Eastern Oregon

Ongoing coverage of the federal case against the people involved in the 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and how life has changed in Harney County, Oregon.

U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown, who’s overseeing the trial, has ultimate say over Cox’s sentence. He’ll appear before Brown in December for sentencing.

“You’ve capped your exposure,” Brown told Cox as the proceeding came to a close. “It’s critical that you don’t do anything between now and sentencing to jeopardize it.”

Cox is the ninth person to plead guilty in the case. Defendants Eric Flores, Geoffrey Stanek, Wesley Kjar, Corey Lequieu, Jason Blomgren, Brian Cavalier, Blaine Cooper and Ryan Payne have all pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.

Cox, who is from the Bend area, acknowledged in court that he went to the refuge Jan. 9-26 with a goal of supporting the occupation and working with others to prevent employees from doing their jobs.

While at the refuge, Cox said, he performed armed security guarding the front and back gates of the headquarter complex.

Prosecutors said in court Wednesday that in terms of evidence, they have a photo of Cox at the refuge with a rifle slung over his shoulder as well as a video of him with a handgun in the bunkhouse.

After the occupation, prosecutors said, the FBI found a Remington .308 rifle that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined Cox purchased in September 2015.

In exchange for taking responsibility, prosecutors dismissed a second charge of carrying a firearm at a federal facility.

As a felon, Cox will no longer be allowed to lawfully poses firearms. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in December.

http://www.opb.org/news/series/burns...ty-travis-cox/

ANTIGOVERNMENT POND BUILDER IN MONTANA SENTENCED TO PRISON

Bill Morlin
July 21, 2016

Antigovernment activist given has been sentenced to 18 months in prison of building illegal ponds on public lands. Already, the movement inspired by Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy is sounding alarm.

A 77-year-old former construction company owner, convicted by a jury of causing significant environmental damage to public lands in Montana, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $130,000 in restitution.

The case of Joseph David Robertson became the cause célèbre of antigovernment, Patriot and militia groups in the West after the 41-day illegal occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge by armed militia and members of the Cliven Bundy family.

Robertson was immediately handcuffed and taken into federal custody after his sentencing hearing on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, where 50 members of Oath Keepers and Bundy supporters showed up to back his defiant stand against the government. Two of his supporters were ejected from the courtroom for unruly conduct.

Afterwards, one antigovernment website said Robertson, a military veteran who lives near Basin, Mont., in the central part of the state, was “ambushed” at the court proceeding.

Some of his supporters apparently were under the belief that Robertson would be allowed to remain free, pending the appeal of his conviction.

“This was a Kangaroo Court show that was worthy of an Oscar,” Shari Dovale wrote in a post on Montana Redoubt News. “It was an ambush from before it began.”

Dovale contended Department of Homeland Security officers were in a nearby building, recording protesters, and the “FBI made a huge presence for intimidation only.”

After years of warnings from the U.S. Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency about illegal, polluting ponds he built on federal lands near his home, a grand jury indicted Robertson in May 2015. A federal jury convicted him in April on two counts of unauthorized discharge of pollutants into U.S. waters and a third count of injury or depredation of federal property.

“He has caused major damage to public lands and waters which will have a significant cost and burden to the taxpayers to clean up,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Whitaker told the court in a sentencing memorandum. The federal prosecutor recommended a sentence of 46 to 57 months.

Robertson contended he constructed the ponds for his livestock and as reservoirs to fight wildfires. Federal agencies alleged –– and the jury agreed –– that his federal Clean Water Act offenses resulted in the ongoing and repetitive spread of pollutants into tributaries and wetlands.

But Robertson remained defiant.

“Why do we get punished for protecting our community? How did all our laws get turned around like this?” he told U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy before being sentenced, the Missoulian reported.

Robertson’s public defender, Michael Donahoe, asked the judge to be lenient in sentencing the former Navy veteran who has been treated for post-traumatic stress.

“He’s just a man who is a property owner,” Donahoe said. “He just wants to enjoy his property in peace.”

Robertson has a “history and propensity for violence,” and made reference to another Ruby Ridge if federal agents attempted to intervene or remove ponds he constructed, the federal prosecutor told the court in a sentencing memorandum.

After his arrest, Robertson was ordered to remove more than 50 firearms he had in his residence.

“Robertson is wholly unwilling to conform his conduct to the rule of law,” the prosecutor told the court.

“Instead, he simply ignores, makes excuses, and outright defies that law” in “a pattern of repeated defiance both toward the law and those who sustain and uphold the law.”

Robertson’s fight dates back at least ten years when he decided to block a U.S. Forest Service road. Several years later, Robertson again was cited and convicted for illegally constructing a pole barn on Forest Service land.

While he was free pending sentencing, Robertson drew support from antigovernment Patriots and militia groups, including Oath Keepers, the John Birch Society, the Coalition of Western States and others interested in this year’s armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

The Missoula newspaper reported that an estimated 50 protesters showed up outside the federal courthouse, including those supporting LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher killed during the Malheur standoff.

Among the protesters were Steve and Donna Putnam, of Pasco, Wash., who said they previously attended several Oath Keeper rallies, including three in Portland, Ore., and others at the highway memorial near Burns, Ore., where Finicum was killed, the Missoulian reported.

“We’re just standing up for people’s rights,” Putnam told the newspaper, holding a flag with Finicum’s cattle brand. “(Robertson) should never have been brought to court.”

The Putnams discussed the unsuccessful attempt to recall Harney County, Ore., judge and county commissioner Steve Grasty, who had opposed the refuge occupation.

“Somebody should shoot that guy,” Donna Putnam said, the Missoula newspaper reported.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/...ntenced-prison

Utah Militia Leader Vows to 'Strike Back' in Video

• By BRADY MCCOMBS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY — Jul 21, 2016, 7:46 PM ET


A Utah militia group leader accused of trying to blow up a federally owned cabin in Arizona talked about his plans to go on the offensive and strike back by damaging government buildings and vehicles in a secretly recorded video played in court Thursday.

The video, taken in March by undercover FBI agents who infiltrated the group, was presented by federal prosecutors during a hearing in Salt Lake City in which William Keebler's latest request to be let out of jail pending trial was rejected.

"They're going to know we've had enough," says Keebler in the video, standing in an RV in a remote part of Utah during a field training mission. "Some of our strikes are going to be loud and dangerous and damaging."

During the clips played, Keebler said that he didn't want to hurt anybody, but he told his group members he wanted to "put the fear of God" in government officials. He advised them to be prepared for a possible gunfight, said he had a hit list of government informants and added: "We're going to start (expletive) people up."

Keebler, 57, is accused of scouting a mosque, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management office and U.S. military facilities as possible targets before choosing the rural Arizona cabin. He was angry about public land policies he saw as federal overreach and had participated in the 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees, prosecutors say.

Keebler is facing one count of attempting to damage federal property and one count of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

Keebler has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He was arrested after a June 21 incident in the northern Arizona area of Mt. Trumbull when Keebler triggered a remote device he believed set off an explosive device at the door of the Bureau of Land Management cabin. The device didn't do any damage because it was inert, built by undercover FBI agents who had infiltrated his small group that otherwise amounted to about four people.

Defense attorney Lynn Donaldson said Keebler is a tough talker but not dangerous as prosecutors are portraying. He said much of what Keebler says should be discounted. He played secretly taped audio from the FBI that shows Keebler insisted he crew stake out the Arizona cabin to make sure nobody was inside.

The FBI pushed Keebler into going forward with the plan by providing transportation to Arizona, making the explosive device and insisting the night before that Keebler should be the one to set it off.

Keebler's friend, Pete Olson, said outside court that Keebler isn't the menace prosecution portrays. Olson said Keebler is a nice guy who is a hunter and self-survivalist.

But federal prosecutor Andrew Choate argued Keebler has a deep hatred of the federal government and is a danger to the community, especially Bureau of Land Management employees.

"He's not just a talker," Choate said. "He was willing to detonate a bomb. That's as serious as it gets. . . . It wasn't a moment of a passion. It took a lot of planning."

U.S. District Judge David Sam sided with the prosecution, saying there is overwhelming evidence that Keebler committed a crime of violence and should not be released.

FBI agent Steve Daniels, who led the two-year investigation of Keebler, said during the hearing that Keebler created his own militia group to prepare for the next armed confrontation with federal agents after he came back from the a 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch over unpaid grazing fees.

The federal agency's investigation of Keebler began after the standoff, where Keebler served in a high-ranking command post, Daniels said.

Keebler held regular meetings and field training sessions, and he had scouted "bugout" locations in rural Utah, he said. Keebler also had an AR-15-style gun and a handgun, Daniels said.

Keebler told undercover FBI agents posing as members of the group he would "slit their throats" if he found out they were government informants, Daniels said. Keebler also talked about killing Muslims and refugees and going to the U.S.-Mexico border to kill drug smugglers.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/u...video-40780729

Ryan Bundy wants $1M to be ‘defendant’ or ‘judge’

The Bundy Brothers face federal charges in the Malheur Refuge takeover

KOIN 6 News Staff Published: July 28, 2016, 4:57 pm

Ryan Bundy in a mug shot from Feb. 19, 2016 (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)

Related Coverage

• Bundy Brothers to stay in jail until trial
• Ryan Bundy may have planned jail escape
• Judge to Ryan Bundy: You can’t go to San Francisco

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In bizarre court documents filed Tuesday, Ryan Bundy declared himself sovereign from state and federal government and wanted to be paid $1 million to accept “the role” of defendant or inmate.

Bundy, the brother of co-defendant Ammon Bundy in the case of the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, is acting as his own attorney. The federal court filings were submitted by his court-appointed legal assistant.

Ryan Bundy said he does not accept the role as defendant or inmate without fair and just compensation of $1 million.

He also said he is willing to play the “role” of “judge” or “bailiff” for $1 million.



A section of a court filing by Ryan Bundy, July 26, 2016 (KOIN)

He also demanded $100 million if he has to face a judge for the conspiracy matter related to the takeover and occupation of the federal facility.

The Bundy brothers and 6 more people will stand trial in September. Another 8 people will stand trial beginning February 14, 2017.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.

http://koin.com/2016/07/28/ryan-bund...dant-or-judge/

July 29, 2016 - 11:58am Updated July 29, 2016 - 12:41pm

Another defendant in Bundy standoffs to plead guilty in Oregon

Joseph O’Shaughnessy (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)



Previous coverage

See a timeline of events leading up Cliven Bundy's conflict with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. Also, see the most recent reports involving Bundy and his family.


By JEFF GERMAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A third defendant charged in both the Oregon and Nevada standoffs involving the Bundy family has agreed to plead guilty in the Oregon case.

Joseph O’Shaughnessy, 43, an Arizona militia member, is to appear at 9 a .m. Monday in Portland before U.S. District Judge Anna Brown to enter his guilty plea, according to court records.

He faces a conspiracy charge stemming from the 41-day standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon that ended in February.

Two other defendants in both cases — Ryan Payne, a Montana militia leader, and Blaine Cooper, a Bundy family bodyguard — previously pleaded guilty in Portland and were ordered transported by U.S. marshals to Nevada so they could negotiate deals in that case.

O’Shaughnessy, an alleged midlevel organizer of the armed confrontation with law enforcement in Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, is also likely to negotiate a plea agreement in Nevada.

Authorities consider Payne, 32, a key organizer in both standoffs, and Cooper, 37, a midlevel organizer with O’Shaughnessy in the 2014 Bunkerville showdown.

All three men are among 19 defendants — including alleged Nevada standoff leader Cliven Bundy and four of his sons — facing a series of federal charges in the Bunkerville confrontation.

The Nevada defendants, all of whom are in federal custody, are accused of conspiring to assault BLM agents on April 12, 2014, and take back impounded Bundy cattle that had been grazing on federal land.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find @JGermanRJ on Twitter.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/a...-guilty-oregon

AUG 16 2016, 9:25 PM ET

Oregon Wildlife Refuge Defendant Who Appeared in Video Pleads Guilty

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Ore. — A former Marine whose appearances in widely shared videos made him one of the most recognizable figures during the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge pleaded guilty Monday for his role in the weekslong standoff with authorities.

Jon Ritzheimer, 32, admitted that he conspired with Ammon Bundy and others to prevent U.S. Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and they did so by threats of force or intimidation.


This Jan. 27, 2016, file photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office shows Jon Ritzheimer, who was arrested in Arizona Jan. 26, 2016, in connection with the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. AP

Prosecutors dropped two charges as part of a plea agreement — theft of government property and possessing a firearm on federal property. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said prosecutors will recommend 2½ years in prison when the Arizona man is sentenced in May. Ritzheimer's attorney, Terri Wood, can argue for less.

Ritzheimer arrived in Oregon shortly before the Jan. 2 takeover. The group sought local control of Western lands and opposed the prison sentences two local ranchers received for setting fires.

In a video posted Dec. 31, Ritzheimer sits in the driver's seat of his truck and emotionally explains to his daughters why he missed Christmas and won't be home for New Year's.

"Your daddy swore an oath," Ritzheimer said. "He swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution."


The YouTube video spawned parodies and the hashtag #DaddySworeAnOath. It has been viewed more than 600,000 times.

Later, in a video released during the occupation, he reacts angrily when opponents respond to a call for supplies by sending sex toys to the refuge. "Rather than going out and doing good, they just spend all their money on hate and hate and hate and hate," he said, before knocking the mail from a table to the floor.

The takeover occurred on the same day as a rally for the two ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond.

Ritzheimer was part of the initial convoy that arrived at the refuge near Burns, Oregon, and took control, authorities say. They informed Bundy, who was at the rally, that they had seized the place.


Occupier Jon Ritzheimer help supporters Joe Rigney, left, and his wife Amanda Rigney unload firewood at the refuge on Jan. 10. JIM URQUHART / Reuters

Ritzheimer used his own truck to block an entrance during the occupation and organized armed guard duties, said Gabriel, the prosecutor. Authorities seized a shotgun that he brought to the refuge.

Ritzheimer told U.S. District Court Judge Anna J. Brown that he helped "take the protest to the next level."

After the hearing, Ritzheimer said he pleaded guilty because he reviewed the charge and, though he may not agree with it, admits he violated the law as it's written. "Marines believe in integrity," he said.

Ritzheimer made news outside of Oregon last year by organizing an anti-Islam protest at a Phoenix mosque and threatening to arrest a U.S. senator for treason because she supported the Iran nuclear deal.

He also led a protest at Walmart after the company removed Confederate flag merchandise.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...guilty-n632356

First defendant in Bunkerville standoff case to plead guilty

Trump Campaign Official To Plead Guilty In 2014 Bundy Ranch Standoff Case

Ken Ritter

By KATHERINE KRUEGER Published AUGUST 16, 2016, 5:11 PM EDT

Jerry DeLemus, a co-chair of Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire, is expected to plead guilty for his role in the 2014 militia standoff at the Bundy family's Nevada ranch, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Tuesday.

In a court filing, Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro said DeLemus has indicated he would change his plea on August 23 after signing a plea agreement.

DeLemus, who had been listed as an alternate delegate for Donald Trump to the RNC weeks after his indictment, faces nine federal charges, including conspiracy to commit a crime against the country and threatening a federal law enforcement officer.

The news makes DeLemus, who was pegged by federal officials as a "gunman and midlevel organizer" for his role in the armed standoff over grazing rights, the first of 19 defendants to make a deal with prosecutors, according to the Review-Journal.

The 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada became a flashpoint for anti-government activists in their decades-long battle with the federal government over grazing rights on public lands. DeLemus resurfaced earlier this year when he traveled to rural Oregon to lend his support to rancher Cliven Bundy's sons, who were leading an armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewi...bundy-standoff

Wed Aug 17, 2016 5:33pm EDT

Oregon wildlife refuge standoff participant sentenced to prison: report

A bumper sticker on a private truck is seen in front of a residential building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart


The first of 26 people on trial for their roles in a weeks-long takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge in January has been sentenced to 2-1/2 years in federal prison, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

Corey Lequieu was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court in Oregon for conspiracy in connection with the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, the newspaper reported.

In addition to time in prison, he was also sentenced under a plea deal to three years of supervised release, the newspaper said.

Lequieu, then 44, was among the armed protesters who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge from Jan. 2 over grazing and other rights to use federally-owned land in the Western United States.

In May, he agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to impede officers of the U.S. government from doing their jobs, court documents show.

Leaders of the protest, including ranchers and anti-government activists Ammon and Ryan Bundy, are set to go on trial as soon as next month. Their armed standoff had lasted about six weeks.

The Bundys were arrested in January along with nine other protesters on a snow-covered roadside where a spokesman for the group, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, was shot and killed by Oregon State Police.

Authorities later said the shooting was later deemed "justified and necessary."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-or...-idUSKCN10S2AO