Ammon Bundy Changes Testimony in Latest Takeover Trial

Cleared of charges related to the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Ammon Bundy on Tuesday testified on behalf of the second round of defendants that the occupation was planned well in advance of its Jan. 2, 2016 launch – the opposite of what he testified in his own trial. For the first time, Bundy told the jury that he first discussed “taking a hard stand” by occupying the refuge on Dec. 16, 2015 – more than two weeks before the occupation. This past October, he testified that the occupation was spontaneous and said he first mentioned it during a meeting an hour before the Jan. 2, 2016, protest in support of local ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. Bundy told the jury in October that he held a meeting Jan. 2 at Ye Olde Castle, a tavern in Burns, and asked a group of about 30 supporters to join him in taking over the refuge later that day. “I proposed to them that we go up to the refuge and that we basically take possession of it and give these lands back to the people,” he said on the witness stand during his trial. But on Tuesday, he told the jury that was not the first time he had discussed the plan with his supporters. “We also talked about it on the day after the formation of the Committee of Safety,” Bundy said. Bundy helped sympathetic locals found the committee on Dec. 15. “I thought we had to go into the refuge and occupy it and that would wake everyone up to what was happening,” Bundy testified Tuesday. “We have a right to peacefully assemble and petition our government for a redress of grievances.” Bundy said several committee members didn’t like the idea, so they tabled it. Knight pushed Bundy on Tuesday regarding the charges for which the government failed to secure convictions in the first trial: conspiracy to prevent federal employees from working. “So employees couldn’t work while you did your protest?” Knight asked. “It is inconvenient sometimes to petition your government for redress of grievances,” Bundy responded...more