Oregon militants cast by defense as
victims of corrupt government
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[October 19, 2016]
By Scott Bransford
PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - The six men and
a woman charged with conspiracy in seizing a U.S. wildlife center in
Oregon were staging a legitimate protest manipulated by the government
through informants who infiltrated the group, a defense lawyer argued at
their trial on Tuesday.
In protesting what they saw as a form of tyranny, the defendants
themselves became victims of a government campaign to discredit and
criminalize a larger movement opposed to federal control over millions
of acres of public land in the West, Marcus Mumford argued.
Mumford, whose client, Ammon Bundy, led the armed takeover of the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, summed up the
defense case in federal court in Portland where Bundy and six others
have stood trial since mid-September.
His closing argument followed the prosecution's summation and weeks of
testimony by government and defense witnesses, some of whom took part in
the 41-day occupation.
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“You are the heart and lungs of liberty,” Mumford told jurors during an
impassioned presentation lasting nearly four hours. “Only you can make
clear that Mr. Bundy is not a conspirator and none of these men and
women are conspirators.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight countered that
Bundy and his followers had defied the rule of law, turning the wildlife
refuge into an armed “fortress” from which to press their political
beliefs.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers
through intimidation, threats or force, as well as with possession of
firearms in a federal facility and theft of government property.
The immediate flashpoint for the takeover was sympathy for two Oregon
ranchers who had just been ordered back to prison for setting fires that
spread to federal land. But Bundy has said the occupation was motivated
by a larger issue - abuse of private property rights through corrupt
U.S. land-management policies.
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![](../images/101816pics/news_g5.jpg)
Ammon Bundy leads a discussion about individual rights at Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, January 7, 2016.
REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo
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“Is it illegal to tell the government to respect its limits?”
Mumford asked the jurors. “Is it illegal to tell the government to
respect the Constitution?”
Mumford said federal officials sought to manipulate the occupiers
through the use of informants planted at the compound to help the
government portray the protesters as “scary people.”
He cited evidence accepted by the court that nine government
informants were present at the refuge during the occupation,
furnishing intelligence to federal law enforcement while influencing
the course of events there.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations in the case as early as
Thursday.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Tom Brown)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
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