Federal prosecutors confirmed late Wednesday that undercover FBI agents posed as a documentary film crew to gather evidence during their investigation of the April 2014 standoff near Bunkerville.
In court papers, the four prosecutors handling the case, including First Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre, did not identify the company used in the ruse.
But defense lawyers who have seen FBI reports of the undercover operation have previously said in court documents that the company’s name was Longbow Productions.
Several of the 19 defendants charged in the Bunkerville case — including Ammon Bundy, one of the leaders of the alleged assault on Bureau of Land Management officers — were tricked into doing interviews with the undercover agents before they were charged. Prosecutors revealed the undercover sting in a written response to court papers filed by another defendant, Gregory Burleson, who accused FBI agents of misconduct for giving him liquor during his October 2014 interview at a Phoenix hotel room.
Burleson’s defense lawyer, Terrence Jackson, has asked a federal judge to toss out the evidence obtained against Burleson by an undercover Longbow crew, arguing that plying him with alcohol induced him to make incriminating admissions.
But in their court papers Wednesday, prosecutors defended the undercover operation and said Jackson has no evidence of government misconduct...
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