Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Bad Legal Takes

Well....

In January 2016 a heavily armed militia led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon. For 41 days the two brothers used it as a base to carry out their fantasy of sparking a revolt against the U.S. government. They failed, but the impunity the Bundys enjoyed — before, during, and after their insurrection — proved to be a model and a source of inspiration for Trump's self-coup on January 6.

The lesson of the Bundy occupation was white conservatives with guns could threaten violence to further their political goals and face minimal consequences. That led to the deadly unrest of the Trump era: Charlottesville, Portland, Proud Boys, and Atomwaffen. Despite this, conservative white extremists were still able to incite violence. Before January 6, there were so many attacks on state capitols one expert on the extreme right asked, "how many times do they have to storm a capitol before it's taken seriously?"

No.

I'm not sure about the assaults on state capitols, since none of the places listed involved such assaults.  Portland involved a Federal courthouse, Charlotesville involved statutes (IIRC), and the other two are extremist groups, not places.  There have been some protestors at some state capitols over the past weekend, but nothing equivalent even to Bundy's stunt at Malheur.


A total of 27 people involved in the occupation were charged under federal law; of those, 26 have been indicted for a single federal felony count of conspiracy to impede officers of the U.S. from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats.[198] A number of those under indictment on the conspiracy charge are also charged with a variety of other counts, some of which incur sentences up to life imprisonment, including possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities, use and carry of firearms in relation to a crime of violence, depredation of government property (relating to damaging the site "by means of excavation and the use of heavy equipment"), and theft of government property.[199][200] In addition, several of those under indictment in Oregon have also been indicted separately for their roles in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada.[201]

In January 2016, a court denied bail to Ammon and Ryan Bundy saying that they were "a flight risk and a danger to the community." The court also denied bail to Ryan Payne, Dylan Anderson, and Jason Patrick.[202] In 2017, prosecutors said they would be asking for a 41-month prison sentence for Payne.[203]

By August 2016, twelve militants pleaded guilty to charges against them, including four of nine militants who were part of Bundy's "inner circle". Of those four, two were reported to be negotiating a resolution to a federal indictment in regards to the Bundy standoff in Nevada.[204][205] The trials for seven militants, including Ammon Bundy, were scheduled to start on September 7, 2016; while a further seven militants were set for trial beginning February 14, 2017.[206][207] Charges against the remaining indicted militant, Peter Santilli, were dropped (but he still faces charges in Nevada related to the 2014 Bundy standoff).
....

On October 27, 2016, Ammon Bundy and six other defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy to impede federal officers and possession of firearms in a federal facility by a jury. One defendant was found not guilty of theft of a government-owned truck, and the jury was hung on charges of theft of surveillance cameras by another defendant. The judge released five of the defendants, but returned Ammon and Ryan Bundy to federal custody because they also face trial related to the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada. At the end of the trial, Marcus Mumford, Ammon Bundy's lawyer, argued with the judge that Bundy should be released immediately on the grounds that the court did not have a detainer, and the United States Marshals Service had no document authorizing Bundy's detention. Both of the Bundy brothers had been ordered to be held without bail in January when they were charged. After the judge admonished him for yelling at the bench, six U.S. Marshals surrounded the defense table and then tackled Mumford and tased him when he resisted. A spokesman for the Marshals Service said Mumford was arrested because he "was resisting and preventing Marshals from taking Ammon Bundy out of the courtroom and back into custody." Other lawyers described the Marshals' actions as a sharp break from customary courtroom decorum. On March 13, 2017, federal prosecutors dropped the unusual charges brought against Mumford for his outburst at his client's verdict.

In the trial of the second group of defendants held in February 2017, four remaining defendants were being prosecuted for conspiring to impede federal employees from working at the refuge through intimidation, threats, or fear. 
....

In closing arguments, attorneys for Duane Ehmer, Jason Patrick, Darryl Thorn, and Jake Ryan maintained that no conspiracy existed. "It was never there," Michele Kohler, representing Ehmer, told the jury. "The thought was never given to the employees. [The occupiers] went there on a holiday weekend." The second jury brought split verdicts. All four defendants in it were found guilty of at least one charge, and Darrl Thorn of two. Jason Patrick and Thorn, who were on security details, were found guilty of conspiring to prevent federal workers from doing their refuge jobs. Duane Ehmer and Jake Ryan were found not guilty on that count. Ehmer and Ryan were found guilty of willfully damaging the refuge when they used a refuge excavator to dig two deep trenches on January 27, 2016. Jurors also found Thorn guilty of possessing a firearm in a federal facility, while acquitting Patrick and Ryan of that same charge. While the jury was in deliberations on the felony cases, Judge Brown held a bench trial for the remaining misdemeanor charges on the last four defendants. The defense contended they didn't know nor were they given proper notice that they were trespassing. Ehmer's misdemeanor charges were for tampering with vehicles and equipment, removal of property, and trespassing. 

Noting that the defendant's guilty plea and low level of involvement in the occupation had mitigated the consequences of his actions, Judge Brown sentenced Geoffrey Stanek on June 26, 2017, to two years' probation and six months' house arrest.[203] For similar reasons, on July 6, 2017, Brown sentenced 23-year-old Tulalip, Washington, tribal employee Eric Lee Flores, to twenty-four months' probation including five months' house arrest.[225] As with Stanek and Flores, probation had been expected for "low-level defendants" Wesley Kjar and Jason Blomgren.[191]

As of August 11, 2017, it had been anticipated that Jason Patrick, Joseph O'Shaughnessy, Duane Ehmer, Darryl Thorn, Jake Ryan, Ryan Payne, Jon Ritzheimer and Blaine Cooper, would be sentenced later in 2017, for their convictions of felonies and misdemeanors involved in the Malheur occupation. Thirteen convicted occupiers have agreed to pay a total of $78,000 in restitution. Ritzheimer and Payne, after pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, and Patrick, convicted at trial of conspiracy plus several misdemeanor offenses, each agreed to pay $10,000. O'Shaughnessy, Cooper, Brian Cavalier and Corey Lequieu, after their guilty pleas to conspiracy, agreed to pay $7,000 each. Thorn, tried and convicted of felonious conspiracy to impede federal workers from doing their jobs at the refuge, plus possession of a firearm in a federal facility and misdemeanors including trespass, agreed to pay $5,000. The most minor of the offenders, Blomgren, Flores, Stanek, Kjar, and Travis Cox all agreed to pay $3,000 each. As of the end of August, the final two defendants, Duane Ehmer and Jake Ryan, still awaited sentencing. They both had dug trenches at the refuge and received guilty verdicts for depredation of government property.

On November 16, 2017, Duane Ehmer was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day, with three years of supervised release.[228] On November 21, 2017, Darryl Thorn was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[229] On November 22, 2017, Wesley Kjar was sentenced to two years of probation with 250 hours of community service.[230] On November 30, 2017, Jon Ritzheimer was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison and must spend another 12 months in a residential re-entry program.[231] On January 24, 2018, Jake Ryan was sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison for depredation of government property, trespass and tampering with government vehicles and equipment. Ryan was also placed on 3 years' supervised release.[232] On February 15, 2018, Jason Patrick was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.[233] On February 27, 2018, Ryan Payne was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison along with three years of supervision.[234] On March 15, 2018, Joseph O'Shaughnessy was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release.[235] On June 12, 2018, Blaine Cooper was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution.

I guess "impunity" means they weren't all buried under the jail for being annoying and attention-grabbing.
I'm not carrying any water for Ammon Bundy, but the fact is, this is not a movie or a TeeVee Show where the "righteous wrath" of the People, exerted through the State, punishes the guilty with everlasting shame and banishment (i.e., they don't appear in the final scenes).  What Ammon Bundy did was hardly the equivalent of storming even a state capitol, much less the U.S. Capitol.  And frankly Bundy probably knew what consequences he faced for taking over Malheur before he even went there.  We may be annoyed at how easily he took over a federal property no one outside of Oregon had ever heard of, but it wasn't a capital crime, and being outraged about it doesn't make it one after the fact.  If we could apply laws that way, we really would be a government of men, not of laws.  And Bundy's stunt happened in 2016.  Does anyone really think the Capitol would have been stormed if Trump hadn't been President for the past 4 years, and ranted and raved about election fraud since November 3 of 2020?
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