Obama Operatives Bragged About Grinding Ranchers Face Into Gravel
First, evidence emerged that supposedly “unbiased” FBI agents had strong, hateful contempt for Donald Trump during his candidacy.
Now, another bombshell report indicates that agents of the Obama-era Bureau of Land Management held similar malice and bias against Cliven Bundy’s family, and broke the law with their actions against the conservative ranchers.
The Bundy ranch case dominated the headlines back in 2014, after a standoff over the use of grazing land developed between the rural family and the federal government.
According to The Oregonian and The Wall Street Journal, the government’s own investigator who was tasked with looking into how the standoff was handled has released a scathing memo of his findings — and it has extremely harsh words for BLM agents.
The document “accuses agents of far-reaching misconduct, recklessness and unrestrained antipathy toward the family,” the Oregon newspaper reported.
TRENDING: Retirement Age to Be Raised After Migrant Flood Costs Gov’t Big Time
“The memo comes from Larry Wooten, who had been the lead case agent and investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management after the tense confrontation outside the patriarch’s ranch near Bunkerville,” the report continued.
What Larry Wooten saw from within his own agency shocked him enough that he filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office… and was promptly kicked off the investigation in what appears to be retaliation.
The BLM wanted the investigator to ignore what he found, but Wooten kept pushing. He decided to be a whistle-blower, and took his evidence even higher to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In a scathing email outlining government abuses during the Bundy ordeal, Wooten described a “widespread pattern of bad judgment, lack of discipline, incredible bias, unprofessionalism and misconduct, as well as likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff.”
The atmosphere was eerily similar to the anti-Trump hatred from “unbiased” FBI agents on the other side of the country.
“Wooten wrote that supervisory agents with the bureau repeatedly mocked the defendants in an ‘amateurish carnival atmosphere’ that resembled something out of middle school, displayed ‘clear prejudice’ against the Bundys, their supporters and Mormons,” The Oregonian reported.
For example, agents allegedly altered booking photos of Cliven Bundy and other defendants to degrade and embarrass them, and used these apparently “Photoshopped” images to insult the ranchers in an office presentation.
Remember, these are sworn law enforcement officials, representing the American people and being paid with taxpayer money, openly mocking and slandering U.S. citizens who are guaranteed a presumption of innocence by the Constitution.
RELATED: Fact Check: No, Trump Isn’t Destroying National Monuments
According to Wooten, some federal officers “bragged about roughing up Dave Bundy, grinding his face into the ground and Dave Bundy having little bits of gravel stuck in his face.”
Dave Bundy is one of Cliven’s sons who was arrested in early 2014 after he videotaped men acting suspiciously near his family’s ranch.
Former investigator Wooten held nothing back in his criticism for how the entire operation was handled, calling it “the most intrusive, oppressive, large scale and militaristic trespass cattle impound possible.”
Some of the information can only be described as sinister… or even monstrous.
“Wooten said he learned from other agency supervisors that (Special Agent Dan) Love had a ‘Kill Book’ as a ‘trophy,’ in which he essentially bragged about ‘getting three individuals in Utah to commit suicide,'” the Oregonian reported.
This information was presented to the legal defense team for the Bundy family, as well as Judge Gloria Navarro, who is presiding over the case. Judge Navarro recently sent the jury home as she considers whether to throw the entire case out or declare a mistrial in light of Wooten’s evidence.
When the Bundy ranch story was unfolding several years ago, many people who protested the government’s heavy-handed actions were labeled conspiracy theorists or anarchists.
It’s safe to say that a former lead investigator on the case is neither. More and more, it seems that phrases like “the deep state” and “drain the swamp” aren’t exaggerations… they are disturbingly accurate.
H/T The Daily Caller https://conservativetribune.com/report-obama-operatives-bundy/
I must laugh at the premise--or non premise of this article. The Bundy's didn't pay the grazing fees. If you don't pay the rent you get evicted, that's just what it is.
The Bundy's are the swamp. Irresponsible, unpatriotic moochers.
It kills me the rightwing mentality......In their eyes Cliven Bundy, a man who wants special treatment by the government to the point that he had openly called for violence against them, is seen as a folk hero, a patriot, a pariah.....smdh!
They should have thrown them all into the back of a paddy wagon with no seat belts.
The Bundy's broke the law yet the republicans fawn all over them.....hypocrites much.
What specific law did they break...they were contesting the grazing fees.
The weren't paying the fees for 21 years that they should have been....that's breaking the law. What so now ranchers should get things for free, I thought republicans frowned on that.
And drug dealers are just contesting drug laws.
And bank robbers are contesting withdrawal fees.
"In 1993, he stopped paying grazing fees and his permit was canceled. In 1998, when authorities banned grazing on much of the federal range, he ignored a court order to move. In its years-long dispute with Bundy, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has portrayed the rancher as a scofflaw, free-riding on the backs of roughly 16,000 ranchers on BLM allotments across the United States who pay their grazing fees. They say he now owes $1 million, most of it fines."
"The county successfully sought a permit that would allow development that inadvertently killed tortoises in some parts of the county if they funded conservation efforts in other parts.
To get the permit, the county made numerous commitments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help the desert tortoise thrive. One of those promises was to pay willing ranchers to give up their grazing rights.
"Clark County made a choice: urban development is far more important to us than ranchers on the periphery of the county,” said James Skillen, author of a book about the BLM"
"His critics say he is ignoring laws that do not suit him and treating public land as if it is his own private range."
Are you serious?! He didnt pay the fee! It didn't matter if he was contesting it or not!
He was doing the government a favor by grazing his cows on the dead grass and getting rid of invasive weeds. Government got greedy.
Spin it all you want, he broke the law plain and simple.
So you are for the spread of invasive weeds? They're a real problem in some states.
Criminals should be dealt with malice and bias by law enforcement. Heck I wish there was more of this.
Law enforcement doesn't make the call on who is and isn't a criminal.....that's the justice departments job
he ignored a court order
Was that sufficient reason to round up his cattle, kill them, and shove the carcasses into a bulldozed mass grave?
Or point assault weapons at frightened women and children? Or position snipers on a nearby hill?
Sounds like typical left wing government overkill. Good thing his armed friends were there and made the government thugs back off.
Comedy! Obama operatives?! You do realize that the possibility that those agents at the BLM are lifers and probably was there BEFORE Obama right?
But the last time I checked Obama wasn't making national speeches encouraging law enforcement to use excessive force against citizens!
Apparently not much is going to come of this. The trial is ending in MISTRIAL .
Note that at the same hearing where Judge Navarro scheduled a Jan 8th hearing on the motion to dismiss with prejudice, she also scheduled a Feb 26th date for a new trial to begin.
Great.....excellent news! So much more to this case,
Ground his face into the gravel? Lucky for him he wasn't black.
Yeah, then he would have been looking like a fool with his pants on the ground
Nah more like being shot in the back 3 times because they were in fear of their life
Okay, i stand corrected. They were probably liberals and were simply pissing their pants in fear of the serious threat little old farmer Finicum presented. Yeah, bad ass Lavoy Finicum might have pulled out his shootin iron and shot the them all dead lickety-split just like in them western movies and all.
Yeee haw .... better shoot him three times in the back before that happens ....
.
What a shock, more fake news from a far right wing conspiracy website with no credibility at all.
Like I said, all fake news.
Finicum was running from the police, he didn't comply with police commands and reached inside his jacket and he was shot and killed. If he was black, the right wing would be screaming... "He was running from the police, he didn't comply with police commands and reached inside his jacket and he was shot and killed."
Remember Tamir Rice? Same thing. Weird that the right said that he didn't comply and reached in his waistband so him being shot and killed by police was completely justified. But Finicum does the same thing? "He was murdered by Obama's thugs!!!". Wow, just wow...
Funny how the right wing is all about the police and "law and order", but as soon as a so called patriot breaks the law, the police suddenly become thugs. Bundy owes the government over a MILLION dollars. Eff that POS.
You're really full of hate...even on Christmas day! Sad and pathetic.
Hmm? I am not the one bashing LEO's. I am bashing a criminal, the way it should be.
Yet another interesting read... so many experts, so lil time...
What makes NO sense in this debacle is the tortoise - cattle were supposedly destructive to the tortoises range land... Here is the funny part (you should all get a giggle out of this ..sarc) the Feds use SUV's / ATV's and helicopters to chase the cattle (doing all the harm by grazing) on the same land .. was not a good day for tortoises that day!
The actions of the government in this case have been heavy handed and unnecessary. They did not need to terrorize women and children. They did not need to shoot animals and bury them in a mass grave. (Ironic, as they did not do it humanely as many Animal Rights Activists claim how slaughterhouses kill cattle.) There was really very little effort put into trying to move the cattle to another grazing area or to a slaughterhouse to be butchered and sold to pay the fees and fines that the Bundys owed. EVERYONE should have felt this was overreach by the government.
Bundy was given ample time to remove his feral and ornery cattle from BLM land, and he refused to do so despite several court orders. He literally had years to comply with those orders, and he refused all negotiations with the BLM to pay his overdue grazing fees or remove the cattle. So the BLM ultimately was left with no choice but to enforce the court order.
So the only blame for everything that happened rests with Cloven Bundy, the racist fundamentalist Mormon who holds a neoconfederate view of the US constitution.
Well, a US District Judge thinks differently, otherwise the trial would still be held and the jury would not have been dismissed.
Actually the mistrial has nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the case. It only relates to whether the prosecution withheld from the defense evidence of bias on the part of one BLM agent......which also has nothing to do with the numerous crimes committed by the Bundys.
When Bundy became a hero to the ultra conservatives he started giving interviews...A big mistake on his part. His racist comments caused two prominent senators to withdraw their support of him. Heller and Paul.
For a view of this comments just read the link.
Actually, it does have everything to do with the merits of the case. When the prosecution fails to hand over exculpatory evidence, you have what is called railroading and an unfair trial. When you have misconduct by investigators, you again have what is called railroading and an unfair trial. These things prevent a fair and just verdict.
The irony here is that they are trying to stereotype an entire religion over what one person says and does. The vast majority of Mormons do not act that way.
tom, I did not attempt to stereotype a religion. I posted Bundy words.
Nowhere did I mention religion.
You mean the merits of that particular trial. That's why a mistrial was declared.
And it's laughable to assert that the evidence withheld was exculpatory for the defendants since it was entirely independent of their crimes. Moreover of the 6 Brady violations most were on the part of the FBI or the BLM, not the prosecutors.
True. In fact the LDS cult has explicitly condemned the Bundys for what they did and for using their cult membership as an excuse for their crimes.