Cliven Bundy Walks Free

The process is the punishment: he has not been free for two years, while the government tried to railroad him by withholding exculpatory evidence. But, at last, a Nevada judge has put an end to it.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the federal government may not retry Cliven Bundy and his sons after rebuking prosecutors for withholding evidence during their felony trial stemming from an armed standoff four years ago.... She said the attorneys were in violation of the Brady rule, which requires prosecutors to disclose evidence that could be favorable to a defendant, and told them it wasn’t possible to proceed with the case.

On Monday, she dismissed the case “with prejudice,” meaning the government cannot retry the defendants. "The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated," Navarro said.

It was yet another defeat for the federal government at the hands of the Bundy family, who have managed to elude prosecution in high-profile trials centered around standoffs with law enforcement over access to public land.

20 comments:

raven said...

great news- but I wonder what new charges the feds will dream up?

Anonymous said...

Now someone should go after those federal employees responsible for the frivolous lawsuits and make them personally pay for the expense that it costs us taxpayers.


Why should us taxpayers be penalized?

or they should lose their Jobs.


-Mississippi

E Hines said...

Bundy needs to be compensated, too, for the malicious prosecution nature of the case brought against him.

Eric Hines

Unknown said...

A great start to the new year! Charges against the Feds as mentioned above would be truly grand.

Eric Blair said...

Whole thing stank to high heaven. BLM and FBI got set on Bundy and did not expect the reaction from those 'militia' guys. So that stand off ensues until it gets leaked to the press that the whole reason the land that Bundy was on was wanted was for some kind of solar power farm deal involving a Chinese company and some relation of Harry Reid's. I suspect the rank and file Feds let it be known that they weren't gonna die for Reid's greed, and they all packed up and left.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Georgia looking good at halftime

Assistant Village Idiot said...

And after 3

Grim said...

They looked great until they didn't.

MikeD said...

Way to editorialize, LA Times:
who have managed to elude prosecution in high-profile trials centered around standoffs with law enforcement over access to public land.

Yes, those wily ranchers eluded prosecution. Because they're so sneaky. It's not that the federal prosecutors botched their own case by hiding exculpatory evidence in an attempt to railroad them. Oh no no no... it was those underhanded ranchers who eluded prosecution.

Even when they don't actually lie, they use wording to imply guilt where none was to be had.

raven said...


Not sure how years of imprisonment, thousands of hours of time put in by the feds, and a total failure of the case could be called "eluding" prosecution. Sounds more like a failure to elude, but a success in resisting an overbearing state.

BTW, have you ever noticed that when someone is convicted using a plethora of legal minutia and charges, that it is "the rule of law"?
But when someone successfully defends themselves somehow the law has been "twisted", or "eluded"?

E Hines said...

Raven, it's the technicality of being let off--or convicted--on a technicality.

Eric Hines

Anonymous said...

Too bad about Georgia......
At least you can cry in your beer.....

I guess it's time for college basketball now

Therefore

Tomorrow night at 8 p.m. I predict Xavier is going to beat the hell out of Villanova and possibly take the number one spot!

- Mississippi

Grim said...

I don't think I did any crying, but I did enough yelling to convince my wife that I should watch Georgia's next championship game from an Emergency waiting room. Just to save myself a trip, you know.

Grim said...

Xavier is going to beat the hell out of Villanova...

Was this meant to be a sport, or a slap-fight at a prep school?

Thos. said...

"Whole thing stank to high heaven. BLM and FBI got set on Bundy and did not expect the reaction from those 'militia' guys."

From what I remember of the "context" in which this all happened, it sure seemed like the feds were desperate to provoke the "right-wing wackos" into violent outbursts.

The .gov, and their usual lefty co-conspirators, had been telling us all about how crazy and dangerous (and racist - don't forget racist) those conservative bitter clingers were; but the level of violence from conservatives didn't come anywhere near what DHS and the SPL were warning us about. I think some of them were starting to be a little bit annoyed that the righties weren't playing along.

I don't remember specifics anymore (this is old news after all) but I recall the Bundy standoff being just one of a multitude of outrages where the particulars were coincidentally just a little too likely to push the buttons of some nutjob (if that nutjob were to see the world as the left's stereotypes imagined, that is).

douglas said...

The old saying goes 'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you', but this proves that sometimes you're not even paranoid.

To anyone who is serious, this should be a real eye opener...

Now about Georgia- Putting aside the horrendous officiating,(the offside call on the wrong team in 'Bama's first TD was the worst, but plenty of holding non-calls too), I'm going to lay this at the Georgia coaches feet. This team just didn't stick to doing all the little things it needed to do against a team like 'Bama. Tackling was at times pathetic, particularly from the secondary; too many guys were spectating when they should have been playing- defenders sure a teammate was going to make a tackle, then running to catch up when he didn't- Offense players not pushing the stack when a runner got stood up- that's legal now, and 'Bama did it some, but I never saw a Georgia player jump in to push the stack... it was like after the last couple of dramatic wins, they thought this was in the bag. Hopefully the bad taste lingers and motivates them next season. Though they're losing both Sony and Chubb, overall they're a very young team, so there's hope.

Grim said...

Yeah, they were tired. I'm not sure how much was bad decision, and how much was inability to execute in the fourth quarter after a double over time Rose bowl.

Bama made a gutsy call putting in that Freshman from Hawaii. Georgia should have gone after that rookie QB with a hard blitz on every play, knock him down every snap. But they didn't, or could not. That kid is going to be somebody too.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Saban adjusted, and adjusted, and adjusted, including distracting messes on his sideline.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Bundy is an example of my distinction between protestors left and right. Leftist protests are more aggressive, in people's faces, insulting, but the destruction tends to be against property. Right wing protests tend to be more defensive even at the extreme, holing up with weapons and daring people to come after them. They don't tend to wreck stuff. On a milder level, you can see this on the ground after protests: lefties leave trash and broken stuff, righties - even obnoxious ones who are looking for a fight, if someone will only start one - tend to pick up after themselves. Weird, really.

My worry is that this is breaking down on both sides. Serious leftists have always resorted more quickly to assassination, but these have been few. Lighting cars on fire or smashing windows used to be about it. But street confrontations that go beyond shouting are increasing now. On the right, staying on defense, even provocative defense like Bundy, is giving way to fascist types willing to swing the first club.

Ymarsakar said...

Bundy's family are practicing Mormons. That means they have a head of religion, which Trum recently tweeted died a few days ago.

Harry Reid is also a practicing Mormon.

What many don't realize is that this wasn't merely a state vs individual conflict. There were other layers of conflicts going on, specifically in different branches of the LDS organization.

I can't remember when Reid had his little "accident", but it was definitely after his comments concerning Prop 8 in California.

Reid's success is attributable to the social connections and spiritual connections of the LDS family. So is Bundy's. When those two interests collide, it was a conflict on more than the material level. Nothing good for Reid.

And the 3 Percenters and the Right Wing militias, have now found a contact point in the LDS family that they can trust. Interesting development.

It was more than 30 years after the crucifixion that the Jewish temple was destroyed, as predicted, in 70 AD ish. Some elohim operate in 30 year plans, not 3 or 5 year plans.