FBI Informants Break The Law So The FBI Can Make The Law

A terrorist, a drug trafficker, an armed robber, and a federal agent walk into a bar. The bartender takes one look at this crew and runs out the back door. So should you. Used to be only one of these had the massive power of the federal law enforcement complex behind him. Now they all do. And that’s a problem.

Somewhere between the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism, a smart federal employee realized there was an easier way. Old fashioned investigation is fine, and usually netted a criminal. But it’s hard. And time-consuming. So why not go straight to the source?

Law enforcement has quickly figured out the laziest easiest way to catch a criminal is to use another criminal. Birds of a feather…whatever. You know how it works. Use a criminal to catch another criminal. Then prosecute the second criminal. And the first criminal. Except the first criminal gets a sweet deal. So one criminal gets hammered and one criminal gets not hammered. And you are a whole lot safer. From the second criminal, at least.

Continue reading

Famous Artist Who Painted Obama Stepping On The Constitution Just Released Trump’s Painting – Spot The Difference?

There is a famous artist from Provo, Utah who painted a very controversial piece of art of a depressed man sitting on a park bench.  He is surrounded by all of the 43 Presidents, and in the forefront, President Barack Obama with his back turned to him stepping on the United States Constitution.

Now with the new American President, Donald Trump, he made a new painting and what a contrast of difference from the other. In this painting, you see the American people, different races, background professions surrounding the once depressed man who is now planting a tree, which could symbolize the tree of hope, and next to him is a woman and President Trump. The title is perfect of Trump’s legacy “You are not forgotten,” because that’s what he promised to the American people that he will fight for the average American middle class, and he will not forget them. His Presidency of almost half a year has already shown his dedication to the people. Bringing jobs back to the people, getting rid of the dangerous Obama care. Taking the fight to terrorism instead of paying them. This painting sums it all.

Continue reading

EDITORIAL: National monuments survive Trump administration review – Las Vegas Review Journal

Members of the environmental lobby should be ecstatic that the Interior Department’s review of 27 national monuments resulted in minimal changes. But in today’s world of all-or-nothing politics, they’re instead speed-dialing their attorneys and wringing their hands because a handful of these nature reserves may still be partially downsized.

Oh, the horror!

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke completed the review last week. He recommended that no designation be rescinded. But a spokesman said he has also proposed border modifications for a handful of monuments. The department has yet to name those areas, but they could include Nevada’s Gold Butte and Basin and Range.

Continue reading

After acquittals, remaining Bunkerville defendants seek freedom

In the wake of a nearly complete acquittal of four defendants in the 2014 Bunkerville standoff retrial this week, a group of defendants still waiting to face a jury want a judge to release them from federal detention, where they have been held for more than a year.

Militia founder Ryan Payne stated in court papers through his attorneys Brenda Weksler and Ryan Norwood that “the arguments in favor of releasing these remaining defendants based on due process grounds have only become stronger.”

At the center of the second group of five defendants still awaiting trial is Cliven Bundy, the Gold Butte rancher prosecutors allege conspired to thwart the federal government’s roundup of roughly 1,000 cows from public land. Bundy’s lawyer, Bret Whipple, joined Payne’s motion Friday.

Continue reading

Gary Hunt : Statement by Gary Hunt Regarding the Freedom of the Press; Show Cause Hearing of August 23, 2017

I intended to write an article about the Freedom of the Press hearing in Portland, Oregon.  However, since I had decided to testify, I had mentally prepared to answer cross-examination questions, should they be asked.  My problem in writing this is that the answers given and the answers not given are mingled together in my mind, I can’t quite sort them out and be sure of the accuracy of what I say.  As to discussing other matters that were brought up, as well as examination and cross-examination of the government’s two witnesses, FBI SA Jason Kruger and FBI SA Matthew Catalano, are also mingled in my mind, as well as much that was presented by both the prosecuting attorney and my able counsel, Michael Rose.

Therefore, I will, at this time, simply give an overview, from my perspective, of what occurred.

Continue reading

Brandon Curtiss, Embattled Patriot-group leader pulled gun on woman serving court summons

BY JOHN SOWELL AUGUST 25, 2017 11:23 AM The founder of an Idaho patriots’ group will avoid jail if he serves a short stint on an inmate work crew for pulling a gun on a woman who served him with a court summons. Brandon Curtiss, 43, who was then president of the 3% of Idaho, was living in a rental home in Fruitland, in Payette County, when an employee of Tri-County Process Serving, of Boise, knocked on the front door. The papers provided Curtiss with legal notice that he had been sued in Ada County by a client of his […]

Continue reading

Federal investigators say an embattled Bureau of Land Management agent took valuable stones held as evidence and handed them out “like candy” to colleagues and contractors.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Bureau of Land Management agent who has been scrutinized for past behavior took valuable stones held as evidence and handed them out “like candy” to colleagues and a contractor, federal investigators said in a report made public Thursday.

Daniel Love played a command role in an April 2014 standoff involving backers of Nevada rancher and states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy. It pitted weapon-toting Bundy supporters against heavily armed BLM agents who, in the end, gave up efforts to collect Bundy cattle for nonpayment of grazing fees.

Love was previously faulted for using his influence to get tickets to a sold-out Burning Man counterculture festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert that he was helping oversee security for and manipulating a job search for a friend.

U.S. Department of Interior investigators also found Love told an employee to delete some emails that contained bureau information requested by then-U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Though the report does not name Love, Chaffetz confirmed Thursday that his request had been directed to Love. Chaffetz did not specify the nature of the request.

Continue reading

Prosecutor Shows Petulance Over Acquittal

Four defendants in the Bunkerville Retrial were found not guilty of 34 of 40 charges Tuesday in an embarrassing smack-down for the federal government in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Steven Stewart and Rick Lovelein were released after the jury found them not guilty on every charge the government had been holding them on for the past 18 months.

Eric Parker and Scott Drexler appeared before Judge Gloria Navarro on Wednesday morning for her ruling on their current “pre-trial” release

The Acting US Attorney showed his humiliation at the symbolic spanking the jury gave to his case by having his own “Mic-Drop” moments during the detention hearings.

Continue reading

*** NOT GUILTY *** Bunkerville Retrial

Celebrations are dominant throughout the Patriot community tonight. The four men on trial for the second time in Las Vegas, Nevada are being released.

Eric Parker, Scott Drexler, Steven Stewart and Ricky Lovelein heard the jury return 34 Not Guilty verdicts today, out of 40 charges.

Each Defendant was charged with 10 separate charges, with 3 possibilities of additional enhancements. They were facing possibilities of spending the rest of their lives in prison.

For the past several weeks, the prosecution painted as damaging a picture as they could, aided by Judge Gloria Navarro. She shut down these men from putting on any kind of a defense.

Continue reading

Zinke’s monument recommendations at the White House for president’s review

ST. GEORGE – The future of Bears Ears and the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments was left unknown Thursday when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke sent recommendations for 27 national monuments under federal review to the White House but did not make the report public.

Zinke announced Thursday morning to the Associated Press he won’t seek to rescind any national monuments carved from the wilderness and oceans by past presidents. But he said he will press for some boundary changes.

Zinke did not directly answer whether any monuments would be newly opened to energy development, mining and other industries the U.S. president has championed.

Continue reading

Jury refuses to convict 4 in Nevada ranch standoff retrial

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal jury in Las Vegas refused Tuesday to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons in a 2014 confrontation to stop a cattle roundup near the Nevada ranch of states’ rights figure Cliven Bundy.

In a stunning setback to federal prosecutors planning to try the Bundy family patriarch and two adult sons later this year, the jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

More than 30 defendants’ supporters in the courtroom broke into applause after Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial.

Continue reading

Juror Impartiality Questioned in Bunkerville Retrial

The juror seems very highly prejudiced against firearms. A mistrial should have been declared.

The Bunkerville Retrial is on Day 23, with three full days of jury deliberations being completed. Today brought the principals together when two jury questions were presented to the court.

The questions centered around one, or more, juror’s beliefs that two other jurors could not be unbiased. The two questionable jurors were identified by numbers, 6 & 9.

Judge Gloria Navarro did not read the questions aloud, presumably to keep the public from hearing the exact wording, as the attorneys had already been given copies of the questions.

Continue reading

Bunkerville Retrial – Innocence is Irrelevant

Those who have been watching the court rulings in the Bunkerville (“Bundy”) retrial have been scratching their heads at some of the rulings of Judge Gloria Navarro in the case.  The Judge appears to consider any evidence of guilt to be relevant while considering any mitigating evidence or evidence of circumstances to be irrelevant. 

Examples of this ‘rule’ in play are numerous.  When a BLM agent named Alexandra Burke took the stand for the prosecution, she was allowed to sob wildly and say that she saw a man with a black hat with a white emblem [defendant Eric Parker] standing and pointing a rifle directly at her from over the concrete barrier of the northbound bridge of I-15.  No photos or video substantiate Burke’s claim, and most observers believe Burke was lying and probably following instructions to lie from prosecutors.   Dozens if not hundreds of sources were taking pictures and video of the area at the time, and there were Nevada Highway Patrolmen on that very bridge at the time (with two rolling dash-cams of the bridge).  The troopers who surely would have made an arrest if they saw or heard that Parker was shouldering and pointing his weapon directly at BLM agents to the left.

Continue reading

Bryan Hyde Perspectives: The Bunkerville trial, what a modern lynching looks like

OPINION – Our news cycle was dominated this past week by the birth announcement of a destructive, tantrum-prone love child sired by masked socialist activists and their national socialist counterparts.

While the public’s attention is focused on whether this little monster looks more like its mother or its father, a very real injustice is taking place just out of view.

The highly publicized, and sometimes blatantly distorted, narrative of events at Bundy Ranch three years ago made the Bundys a household name. No matter which version you choose to believe, it’s safe to say that what happened at Bunkerville was likely the most significant act of armed civil disobedience in the past 150 years.

Continue reading

Reporters sue feds for info on FBI’s Bundy ranch infiltration with fake film crew

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit Monday against the Justice Department and FBI in an effort to pry loose documents related to the FBI’s prior impersonation of documentary filmmakers.

The FBI has admitted to sending undercover agents to Nevada in 2014 to act as a film crew and interview supporters of rancher Cliven Bundy amid an armed standoff with the federal government.

Footage shot for the fake documentary was later used by the government during criminal trials of some of those involved in the standoff.
The reporter’s committee sought through Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain FBI records regarding the bogus film crew as well as any records on the bureau’s use of the tactic dating back to 2010. The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia comes after the committee said the FBI has failed to act on the FOIA requests.

Continue reading

Judge Navarro vs. the Jury – Bunkerville Retrial

Judge Gloria Navarro has had a difficult time getting the defendants and spectators to understand that Jury Nullification is, well… a bad thing. She has made her rulings. She has given her orders. She has specifically forbidden nullification from being used in the case of US v. Bundy et. al. She has not, however, said that jury nullification is illegal.

In fact, Nullification is legal. As much as Gloria Navarro would like the jurors to believe otherwise, and that they can be punished for not returning a verdict she approves of, the standard has been in place for nearly 350 years.

Continue reading

Jury in Bunkerville standoff case to resume deliberations Monday

After more than two days of deliberation, jurors are expected to return Monday in the retrial of four men facing federal charges in the 2014 armed standoff in Bunkerville.

On Tuesday, the panel of six women and six men started deliberating the charges against Idaho men Steven Stewart, Scott Drexler and Eric Parker, and Montana resident Ricky Lovelien. Jurors were sent home at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday and are expected to resume deliberations Monday morning, defense attorneys said.

During closing arguments this week, prosecutors pointed to social media posts in which the men discussed the activities in the rural Nevada town, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. On a video played for jurors, rancher Cliven Bundy spoke to a crowd outside his ranch, encouraging his followers to do what they needed to do to retrieve his cattle from the Bureau of Land Management.

Continue reading

Bunkerville Retrial Draws Crowd For Verdict Watch

Andrea Parker was surrounded by friends and well-wishers outside the Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas today.

Waiting on a jury to decide her husband’s fate, she spent the day in handcuffs protesting the rulings of Judge Gloria Navarro.

The week brought a crowd of hundreds of people from around the country to rally and show their frustration at the Constitutional rights being denied to four men on trial this month.

Eric Parker was removed from the witness stand and his testimony stricken by Judge Navarro earlier this week. She denied him his right to testify in his own defense because she did not want the Federal law enforcement officers to look bad in front of the jury.

The jurors are now deliberating, having received the case on Tuesday.

Continue reading

Oregon refuge occupier Darryl Thorn taken into custody amid concerns over suicidal threats

A judge Wednesday revoked Oregon refuge occupier Darryl Thorn’s release and sent him to jail immediately to undergo a mental health evaluation, concerned about repeated threats he made to his girlfriend that he was going to hang himself or commit “suicide by cop.”

Thorn, who was convicted of federal conspiracy, possession of a firearm in a federal facility, trespass and other charges at a trial this year, suffered an “emotional crisis” after moving to the small eastern Oregon town of Monument, his defense lawyer said.

Thorn, 32, moved there from Spokane in late June on the promise of a job and a residence, only to have both fall through, said Jay Nelson, Thorn’s third defense lawyer in the case. He ended up living in an RV park and searching for odd jobs while his girlfriend often was away traveling for her job in road construction.

Continue reading

Defense Does NOT Rest – Jury Deliberates

The Bunkerville Retrial has gone to the jury to begin their deliberations.

The defense case has been wrought with drama. Judge Gloria Navarro began by forcing the defense witnesses to proffer, or preview, their testimony out of the jury’s hearing. After 4 witnesses testified via SKYPE last week, including a witness that previously was called by the prosecution, Navarro ruled that none of them could testify.

Navarro made the ruling based on her belief that the witnesses were only there to bolster a self-defense claim. She ruled previously that this was not a valid defense in this case.

The following day, Eric Parker attempted to testify in his own defense, as is his right to do. After a few questions, Navarro stopped him from testifying, had him removed from the witness stand, and had his testimony completely stricken from the official court record. She instructed the jury to disregard his testimony, as if he had never been on the witness stand.

Continue reading

Drama Closes US Trial: Bundy Case Defense Lawyers Stay Mute

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a dramatic end to a contentious trial, defense attorneys declined Tuesday to make closing arguments on behalf of four men accused of wielding assault weapons against federal agents in a 2014 standoff near Nevada anti-government figure Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

The move left defendants Eric Parker, Steven Stewart and Ricky Lovelien of Montana and Oklahoma essentially mute in answer to 10 felony charges including conspiracy, weapon possession and assault on a federal officer.

Defendant Scott Drexler of Idaho testified in his defense on Monday.

Parker testified last week, but Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered him off the witness stand and struck his testimony from the record for what she said was a deliberate failure to keep his testimony within bounds of rules she set to keep the focus on what the defendants saw and did during the confrontation, not what they felt or why they acted.

Continue reading

Defense attorneys withold closing arguments in Bunkerville retrial

Defense attorneys sat silently Tuesday, rather than give closing arguments for the four men facing a retrial in the Bundy Ranch standoff.

Hamstrung throughout the trial by a judge’s decision to limit the witnesses they could call, the questions they could ask and the testimony their clients could give, the lawyers made the final decision, a statement of sorts, after discussing the option with the defendants — Eric Parker, Scott Drexler, Steven Stewart and Ricky Lovelien — during a lunch break.

“It was a strategic decision,” said lawyer Jess Marchese, who represents Parker. “We thought we gained more by not giving a closing argument than the government giving a rebuttal.”

Continue reading

Defense waives closing arguments; jurors begin deliberations in Bundy Ranch standoff trial

Defendants waived closing arguments Tuesday in the Bundy Ranch standoff trial in Las Vegas, ending a monthlong legal battle with a clear protest about court proceedings.

Lawyers for the four men charged in the 2014 clash among federal agents, militia members and cattle ranchers took the unusual step of resting their cases without a final address to the jury.

“The message is simple,” Las Vegas lawyer Shawn Perez said Tuesday afternoon. “You silenced us the entire trial … there’s nothing more to say.”

The move was part of a strategy to deprive federal prosecutors of an opportunity to make rebuttal arguments and to end the case while it was in the hands of the defense, said Perez, who represents defendant Richard Lovelien of Oklahoma.

Continue reading

Scott Drexler Testifies in Bunkerville Retrial

Last week showed mayhem in the Judge Gloria Navarro’s courtroom in Las Vegas. The defense attempted to call defendant Eric Parker to the witness stand to testify in his own defense.

The prosecution showed their paranoia when they began their objections nearly immediately. Judge Navarro had laid out guidelines for Parker’s testimony that focused on not allowing the Federal agents to be placed in a bad light. She has insisted that there is no self-defense allowed when the ‘victim’ is a federal agent or law enforcement officer. She claims there is no evidence that these agents used excessive force on April 12, 2014.

However, though she has allowed these agents to cry on the witness stand to emphasize their fear of the protesters, she has put her iron fist down about the defendants doing the same. Navarro allowed the prosecution to object to Parker using the words “snipers” and the “First Amendment Zone”.

Continue reading