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Wednesday was a busy day for people who threaten violence against federal officials over public lands. As law enforcement officers surrounded the remaining occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, the man who started it all — Cliven Bundy — was arrested in Portland.
Now, Cliven Bundy didn’t physically start the now-infamous takeover of the Malheur refuge by an armed militia — that was his son, Ammon. But he did inspire the movement that led to the occupation. Bundy did that by forming a militia of his own — a much bigger, scarier militia that engaged in a stand-off with federal officials in 2014, essentially over Bundy’s unpaid grazing fees.
The elder Bundy was on his way to lend support to the occupiers in Oregon when he was arrested on Tuesday, over charges stemming from that 2014 stand-off. And in the formal legal complaintagainst him released Wednesday, FBI special agent Joel P. Willis recalled the day in 2014 when more than 200 armed ranchers threatened violence against him and his fellow officers if they did not return Bundy’s cattle to his ranch.
“The 200 followers … included a significant number brandishing or raising their assault rifles in front of the officers,” Willis wrote, describing a scene where men with guns “aimed directly” at his colleagues. “Some of the gunmen took tactically superior positions on high ground , while others moved in and out of the crowd, making their movements behind other unarmed followers.”
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