Holy mole. I just got done reading this and all I can say is that Cliven is truly in some deep, deep poo.
2-16-16 Doc 4 - U.S.A. v CLIVEN BUNDY - USA Detention Memorandum for Cliven Bundy2016-02-16 4 0 Memorandum in Support of Motion by USA as to Cliven D. Bundy (Styled as Memorandum in Support of Motion for Pretrial Detention) (Gorder, Charles) (Entered: 02/16/2016) 2016-02-16 14:28:44
As you may know, Cliven is in court today regarding his potential for release (on bail). After reading the entire 34 pages, all I can say is dude, congratulations. You are so incredibly screwed.
x@jay_mulliganpic.twitter.com/emBHVvSHL7
— Jamie York (@mediagonebad) February 13, 2016Here are a few excerpts:
Bundy is lawless and violent. He does not recognize federal courts – claiming they are illegitimate – does not recognize federal law, refuses to obey federal court orders, has already used force and violence against federal law enforcement officers while they were enforcing federal court orders, nearly causing catastrophic loss of life or injury to others. He has pledged to do so again in the future to keep federal law enforcement officers from enforcing the law against him. As of the date of this hearing, he continues to violate federal court orders and continues to possess the proceeds of his illegal activities.
Bundy is currently charged with crimes of violence including using and brandishing firearms in connection with crimes of violence under Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c). As such, the Bail Reform Act presumes that there areno conditions or combination of conditions that will ensure the safety of the community. 18 U.S.C. § 3142(e)(3)(B). Here, no evidence has been adduced during the investigation of the instant charges that even remotely hints at a rebuttal to that presumption. In fact, all the evidence suggests that Bundy will continue to act lawlessly, will not abide by court orders, and will use violence to ensure that federal laws are not enforced as to him.
Lawless? Violent? Gee, ya think?
Bundy, 69, is a long-time resident of Bunkerville, Nevada, living on 160 acres of land in a very rural and sparsely-populated area of the state. ...
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Bundy Ranch is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of acres of federal public lands commonly referred to as the Gold Butte area (and includes an area formerly known as the Bunkerville Allotment). Bundy uses that entire range of land to graze his cattle unlawfully. (my emphasis)
.Real cattlemen probably cringe when reading this:
While Bundy claims he is a cattle rancher, his ranching operation – to the extent it can be called that – is unconventional if not bizarre. Rather than manage and control his cattle, he lets them run wild on the public lands with little, if any, human interaction until such time when he traps them and hauls them off to be sold or slaughtered for his own consumption. He does not vaccinate or treat his cattle for disease; does not employ cowboys to control and herd them; does not manage or control breeding; has no knowledge of where all the cattle are located at any given time; rarely brands them before he captures them; and has to bait the minto traps in order to gather them.
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At the time of the events giving rise to the charges, Bundy’s cattle numbered over 1,000 head, straying as far as 50 miles from his ranch and into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (“LMNRA”), getting stuck in mud, wandering onto golf courses, straying onto the freeway (causing accidents on occasion) – foraging aimlessly and wildly, roaming in small groups over hundreds of thousands of acres of federal lands that exist for the use of the general public for many other types of commercial and recreational uses such as camping, hunting, and hiking.
As for Cliven’s belief that his Second Amendment rights protect his First Amendment rights:
As the Court knows, it is a violation of federal law to use a firearm to assault, interfere with or intimidate a federal law enforcement officer. And contrary to the fiction recited by Bundy and his Followers to others, including children, there is no First or Second Amendment right or other right recognized in the law anywhere that gives anyone the right to use or carry, let alone brandish, raise or point, a firearm in order to assault, intimidate, interfere with or prevent a federal law enforcement officer from performing his or her duties – whether one thinks the officer is acting constitutionally or not. While that should be obvious to any law abiding citizen, Bundy espouses to the contrary.
Ow.
Really, this is the most revealing thing I have read to date, including instances of private people being stopped and questioned on public roads, etc. by his sons or his “crew”.
It paints a picture of a wild west that probably didn’t exist even back in the days of the wild west.
Um, not your sagebrush, buddy.For those of us in the west who so badly wanted to see Cliven charged and the lands gathered back for public use, this will be the trial of the decade. And for the ten ranchers in Utah that recently agreed to tear up their BLM contracts, the single rancher in New Mexico that did likewise, and the very recent bunch in Idaho likewise, perhaps this may put that notion on pause. What Bundy has asked them to do is, basically, endanger their livelihoods and their family’s safety under guise of faux constitutionality and greed.
Yes, we waited a while for this, grew impatient and sometimes demanded. But now we will watch the fruit of that lapse of time in terms of not only what he did in April of 2014, but subsequent.
The American people own these lands and value them. We want them back. They have been so seriously overgrazed it will take decades for them to return to a good natural state, if they can even do that.
As soon as I hear the court decision I will update the story.
UPDATE: Cliven Bundy denied bail. I am looking for a good story. Hat tip to PJEvans.
UPDATE 2: Here is an OPB article on the court decision to hold Bundy over to trial.
UPDATE 3: Oregon Live also has a story up on this, here.