Re: [LIBERTY] [MINISTRY] SCOTUS: Bundy's exonerated, Judge slams “outrageous” abuses and “flagrant misconduct” of FBI and "Justice" Department
Steven Schear
schear.steve at gmail.com
Thu Jul 12 10:59:31 PDT 2018
For decades I have blogged, tweeted and pontificated that a major part of a
practical solution to government and insider misconduct is a practical way
for private criminal federal- and state-level prosecutions (e.g., fair
access to government prosecution funds).
On Mon, Jan 15, 2018, 3:49 PM Zenaan Harkness <zen at freedbms.net> wrote:
> Well here's a rare breath of fresh air for Murricans in a Supreme
> Court of the US (SCOTUS ) decision exonerating the Bundys - one for
> the history books, and well done folks, well firetrucking done!‼!
>
> Perhaps the Ruby Ridge $3 million payout will give precedent for the
> Bundy's (not that that can ever compensate for what the govt did on
> Ruby Ridge), but what's really needed is for you folk across the pond
> to get some proper grand juries going against the FBI and DOJ - the
> govt shills will shout "you citizens can't do that!!!" from the
> rooftops and every forum, but that won't stop a small committed and
> determined group from achieving their careful and well-planned
> approach to this "problem".
>
> Good luck,
>
>
>
>
> Government's Misconduct In Cliven Bundy Case Stems From Ruby Ridge
>
> https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-15/governments-misconduct-cliven-bundy-case-stems-ruby-ridge
> (Quite a few links in the linked article)
>
> Federal judge Gloria Navarro slammed the FBI and Justice Department
> on Monday, Jan. 8, for “outrageous” abuses and “flagrant
> misconduct” in the prosecution of Cliven Bundy and sons, the Nevada
> ranchers who spurred a high-profile standoff with the FBI and
> Bureau of Land Management in 2014.
>
> Navarro condemned the "grossly shocking” withholding of evidence
> from defense counsel in a case that could have landed the Bundys in
> prison for the rest of their lives. Navarro, who had declared a
> mistrial last month, dismissed all charges against the Bundys.
>
> Navarro was especially riled because the FBI spent three years
> covering up or lying about the role of their snipers in the 2014
> standoff. The Bundys faced conspiracy charges because they summoned
> militia to defend them after claiming FBI snipers had surrounded
> their ranch. Justice Department lawyers scoffed at this claim but
> newly-released documents vindicate the Bundys. In an interview
> Saturday, Ammon Bundy reviled the feds:
>
> “They basically came to kill our family, they surrounded us
> with snipers. And then they wanted to lie about it all like
> none of it happened."
>
> Many of the heavily-armed activists who flocked to the scene feared
> that the FBI snipers had a license to kill the Bundys.
>
> Their reaction cannot be understood without considering a landmark
> 1990s case that continues to shape millions of Americans’ attitude
> towards Washington: the federal killings and coverups at Ruby
> Ridge.
>
> Randy Weaver and his family lived in an isolated cabin in the
> mountains of northern Idaho. Weaver was a white separatist who
> believed races should live apart; he had no record of violence
> against other races — or anyone else. An undercover federal agent
> entrapped him into selling a sawed-off shotgun. The feds then
> sought to pressure Weaver to become an informant but he refused.
>
> After Weaver was sent the wrong court date and failed to show up,
> the feds launched a vendetta. Idaho lawyer David Nevin noted that
> U.S.:
>
> “Marshals called in military aerial reconnaissance and had
> photos studied by the Defense Mapping Agency. They prowled the
> woods around Weaver’s cabin with night-vision equipment. They
> had psychological profiles performed and installed $130,000
> worth of long-range solar-powered spy cameras. … They even knew
> the menstrual cycle of Weaver’s teenage daughter, and planned
> an arrest scenario around it.”
>
> On August 21, 1992, six camouflaged U.S. Marshals carrying machine
> guns trespassed onto the Weavers’ property. Three marshals circled
> close to the Weaver cabin and killed one of their dogs. A firefight
> ensued and 14-year old Sammy Weaver was shot in the back and killed
> as he was leaving the scene. Kevin Harris, a family friend,
> responded by fatally shooting a federal marshal who had fired seven
> shots in the melee.
>
> The next day, the FBI sent in its Hostage Rescue Team snipers with
> orders to shoot to kill any adult male outside the Weaver cabin. A
> federal appeals court ruling later noted that:
>
> “FBI agents formulated rules of engagement that permitted their
> colleagues to hide in the bushes and gun down men who posed no
> immediate threat. Such wartime rules are patently
> unconstitutional for a police action.”
>
> FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shot Randy Weaver in the back after he
> stepped out of his cabin, wounding him. Horiuchi then shot and
> killed Vicki Weaver standing in the cabin door holding their
> 10-month old baby. A confidential 1994 Justice Department task
> force report concluded:
>
> “The absence of a (surrender demand) subjected the Government
> to charges that it was setting Weaver up for attack.”
>
> Weaver and Harris surrendered after an 11-day siege. At their 1993
> trial, federal prosecutors asserted that Weaver long conspired to
> have an armed confrontation with the government. The feds bizarrely
> asserted that moving from Iowa to a spot near the Canadian border
> in 1985 was part of Weaver’s plot. After an Idaho jury largely
> exonerated the defendants, federal judge Edward Lodge slammed DOJ
> and FBI misconduct and fabrication of evidence in the case.
>
> Regardless of the judge’s condemnation, FBI chief Louis Freeh in
> 1995 exonerated the FBI for its actions at Ruby Ridge. That year,
> after I slammed Freeh’s whitewash in the Wall Street Journal and
> elsewhere, Freeh denounced my “inflammatory and unfounded
> allegations.” Five months later, I snared a confidential 542-page
> Justice Department report on Ruby Ridge, excerpting its damning
> findings in a Wall Street Journal piece. The coverup unraveled and
> the feds paid the Weaver family $3.1 million to settle their
> wrongful-death lawsuit. A top FBI official was sent to prison for
> destroying key evidence.
>
> But the FBI sniper who killed Vicki Weaver never faced
> justice. When Boundary County, Idaho, sought to prosecute
> Horiuchi in 1998, the Clinton administration invoked the
> Supremacy Clause of the Constitution (which blocks local and
> state governments from challenging federal power) to torpedo
> their lawsuit. Solicitor General Seth Waxman absolved the
> sniper because “federal law-enforcement officials are
> privileged to do what would otherwise be unlawful if done by a
> private citizen.”
>
> While that claim may sway federal judges, it often fails to
> charm jurors. A Justice Department brief in the Bundy case
> revealed that prosecutors dreaded jury nullification — “not
> guilty” verdicts due to government abuses. That specter
> spurred prosecutors to withhold key evidence from both the
> court and the defense counsel, resulting in a mistrial and
> dismissal of charges.
>
> Judge Navarro rightly declared that “a universal sense of
> justice has been violated” by federal misconduct in the Bundy
> trial. Americans’ trust in the FBI and Justice Department will
> not be restored until those agencies are compelled to obey the
> law and the Constitution. Until that happens, federal
> prosecutors should continue fearing verdicts from Americans
> who refuse to convict those whom the feds wrongfully vilify.
>
> * * *
>
> James Bovard is a USA Today columnist and the author of 10
> books, including “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American
> Liberty” (St. Martin’s Press, 1994).
>
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