Trump pardons ranchers in case that inspired 2016 occupation of national wildlife refuge in Oregon
Source: Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump has pardoned two ranchers whose case sparked the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.
Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted in 2012 of intentionally and maliciously setting fires on public lands. The arson crime carried a minimum prison sentence of five years, but a sympathetic federal judge, on his last day before retirement, decided the penalty was too stiff and gave the father and son much lighter prison terms.
Prosecutors won an appeal and the Hammonds were resentenced in October 2015 to serve the mandatory minimum.
The decision sparked a protest from Ammon Bundy and dozens of others, who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near the Hammond ranch in southeastern Oregon from Jan. 2 to Feb. 11, 2016, complaining the Hammonds were victims of federal overreach.
Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-pardon-dwight-steven-hammond-20180710-story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
The "dog whistle" is deafening
A little more history and background to get you even more angry.
This is a completely unjustified, unethical, irresponsible, and - yes - deplorable action.
He and his cronies seem determined to destroy our entire country: not only our democracy and our people, but also our natural heritage.
http://radio.wosu.org/post/president-trump-pardons-ranchers-dwight-and-steven-hammond-over-arson#stream/0
Audio and text at the link.
An excerpt of the text:
"The seeds of the current situation were sown in 2001 and 2006. In both those years, the U.S. government said the Hammonds set fires that spread onto land managed by the [Bureau of Land Management]. The 2001 blaze burned 139 acres of public land, according to court documents; the 2006 fire — for which only Steven was convicted — burned additional acre of public land."
Here's how the Justice Department described Steven Hammond's actions after he was resentenced in 2015:
"Witnesses at trial, including a relative of the Hammonds, testified the arson occurred shortly after Steven Hammond and his hunting party illegally slaughtered several deer on BLM property. Jurors were told that Steven Hammond handed out 'Strike Anywhere' matches with instructions that they be lit and dropped on the ground because they were going to 'light up the whole country on fire.' One witness testified that he barely escaped the eight to ten foot high flames caused by the arson."
These despicable criminals should not be allowed to roam free in society.
walla--trumpy pardons them.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-pardons-oregon-men-whose-case-sparked-wildlife-refuge-takeover/ar-AAzR7Rb?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=spartanntp
Trump Pardons Oregon Men Whose Case Sparked Wildlife Refuge Takeover
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and JULIE TURKEWITZ
1 hr ago
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday pardoned a pair of Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving sentences for arson on federal land — sentences that set off the armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in 2016.
Dwight L. Hammond, now 76, and his son, Steven D. Hammond, 49, became a cause célèbre that inspired an antigovernment group’s battle with the federal government over its control of rural land in Oregon. The occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge resulted in the death of a rancher from Arizona.
The Hammonds have a long history of conflict with the federal government, but many felt their sentences for the 2001 and 2006 fires were unfair.
“The Hammonds are multigeneration cattle ranchers in Oregon imprisoned in connection with a fire that leaked onto a small portion of neighboring public grazing land,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement. “The evidence at trial regarding the Hammonds’ responsibility for the fire was conflicting, and the jury acquitted them on most of the charges.”
The pardons will shave some time off the Hammonds’ five-year sentences — Dwight Hammond has served three years and Steven Hammond has served four. But the pardons suggest the Trump administration’s support of ranchers in the battle over federal lands and also undo an Obama administration appeal to impose longer sentences for the Hammonds...................................................
He would have had some decision to make regarding Benedict Arnold
Fuck no............................
Because the human beings at standing rock were not trying to over throw the government..................they were trying to have clean drinking water, clean food, and air, and protect scared burial grounds................
