Portland, Ore. — Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five of their followers, charged in the armed takeover of the federally owned Malheur Wildlife Refuge in January, were acquitted Thursday of federal conspiracy and weapons charges.
The verdict closes a case that gripped the nation earlier this year with its public debate about government powers, public lands and constitutional rights.
There was a Wild West quality to event, with armed men in cowboy hats taking on federal agents in a debate over public lands and putting out a call for aid, only to see their stand off fizzle.
During the trial that lasted a month, the defendants never denied that they had occupied and held the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters for nearly six weeks, demanding that the federal government surrender the 188,000-acre property to local control. But their lawyers argued that prosecutors did not prove that the group had engaged in an illegal conspiracy that kept federal workers — employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management — from doing their jobs.
Photo Credit: OPB
