Oh so the "zero tolerance" Trump justice department and Trump, pardon two guys who:
Used public land for their cattle and refused to pay the required tax
Then instigated people to take over a government building
Brunt public property
Cause the death of one person
And wasted 100,000 of thousands of taxpayer's money for police to deal with their illegal behavior
And they get a Trump pardon
While south Trump is tearing small children from their parents - to enforce "zero tolerance" of the law.
What's criminal is failing Donald Trump.
10
Great. A pro-arson president.
6
Don't hate republicans too much...just hate them with restraint, good taste, and finesse...
3
Get your mind right...
If the sentences were too long, why didn't the President commute them? Why the pardon which effectively says they were convicted wrongly to start with? President Obama used commutation in several cases where a pardon was inappropriate.
4
"The Hammonds were prosecuted under a 1996 terrorism statute, passed after the Oklahoma City bombing, that imposed five-year mandatory minimum sentences for arson on federal property. Critics called the sentences too harsh." They were using techniques (on their own private property) that the Federal government uses to manage wildfires . They were acquitted of everything but starting the fires and sentenced accordingly. The Obama administration decided the sentences weren't bad enough, appealed and convinced another judge to sentence them as terrorists. It's hard to imagine a bigger abuse of Federal prosecutorial abuse.
7
I think Pres Trump could be more far sighted. The article says the Hammonds at one time ranched cattle on 26,000 acres of federal land. There are too many large spreads like this one operated by wealthy men who like having big spreads and minimum rent. Ted Turner owns 40,000 acres and many other easterners own even more or lease it. And how do they use it? As private hunting grounds for their corporate customers in some cases. Let the federal govt. manage federal lands in the West.
3
The men who were pardoned were tried and went to jai. Then the feds decided to try them again for the same crime and they were sentenced to five years. they were in jail at the time of the armed standoff.
It was the Bundys who led the armed standoff. The Bundys who were acquitted at their jury trial, which the NYT either didn't cover or was unwilling to report why the jury acquitted.
After the Bundy standoff in Nevada, why is it that they were never quietly arrested later on?
1
You have your facts very wrong here, sorry to say.
The Hammonds who were pardoned were not tried twice for the same crime. They were released from prison, but an appeals court ruled that the original sentence was improperly short, so they had to go back to jail. That is not double jeopardy, which is prohibited by the Constitution.
The Hammonds were free at the time the occupation of the refuge started. They reported to prison a few days after it started. They did not welcome the occupation, though.
The Times gave extensive coverage to the acquittals at the Bundy trial:
Bundy Brothers Acquitted in Takeover of Oregon Wildlife Refuge
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/bundy-brothers-acquitted-in-takeov...
And the reasons behind it:
Verdict in Oregon Draws Surprise and Questions About Equity
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/29/us/oregon-bundy-verdict-wildlife-refu...
Cliven Bundy’s quiet arrest was reported here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/us/fbi-agents-encircle-holdouts-insid...
2
NY Times readers never cease to amaze me - but the writers don't help. I wonder how many of you read past the headline before commenting? Two points nobody seems to notice - the original sentence and comments by the original trial judge that the prosecutors spent a few years appealing - sounds political to me. Second the Hammonds and their family did not support the takeover of federal land - if my memory serves they opposed it.
I thought you all were opposed to mandatory minimum sentences - I guess that doesn't apply to white guys.
2
HUH?
Once again, conservatives want to get something for nothing. It’s at the very core of their philosophy, which is why the so love and defend the privilages that come from other unearned advantages, like being white, male, straight, and, of course, inheriting wealth and land.
Pay for what you get. That’s the American way.
Imagine if these were armed black people who confronted the federal government? Rewarding lawlessness. I'm disgusted by everything at this point.
3
Good decision, these patriots don't deserve jail, illegal invaders at the border do.....
2
Donald Trump has every quality of a racist. Now he is supporting domestic terrorists.
3
TRUMP has a burning desire to pardon pyromaniacs who were arsonists that burned federal lands. Trump's daily food fights produce more muck and filth for the rest of us to clean up.
2
Regarding the condemnation of President Trump for his pardon of these Oregon ranchers, how soon everyone forgets President Obama commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, reducing a 35-year prison sentence to seven years. Manning was convicted by court-martial for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified and military sensitive documents.
2
There's a big difference between commuting a sentence and pardoning a criminal.
3
So, property owned by you and me (the Public) that is out there for the common good gets destroyed because these two guys know more than us, and that's ok now. The public has no property rights with Trump.
2
My comment here is probably quite beside the point but has anyone considered the feelings of the descendants of the First People, from whom these vast (and previously unconquered) lands were stolen?
“Multigenerational cattlemen,” sneered Sarah Huckabee-Sanders; that, I suppose, is just another Trumpian shorthand code for “white people rule.” What of the hundreds of treaties that the federal government violated with the Native Peoples?
In its westward expansion, “Manifest Destiny,” America committed the greatest theft of land in world history, consigned the conquered Peoples to squalid ghettos that the government called “reservations,” and appropriated their land for the purchase of “real Americans” like the Hammonds and the Bundys.
No, Ms. Huckabee-Sanders; the “previous administration” wasn’t guilty of “overzealous” prosecution of public land poachers and despoilers. It was administering justice long delayed, something your boss knows nothing about.
7
Trum[p doesn't so much support ranchers. He supports white males.
3
Mr. Trump may not be a politician but he certainly is a political animal. He could care less about these ranchers but he sure cares about his own base. Here's another example of lawlessness from this president!
3
I thought it was a clear case of Government over reach to get Cattle Ranchers off the grazing rights that they have had for decades. Wonder what the Government had in mind for the land once the cattlemen were evicted??? I think someone or group was looking for a windfall. After all, we sold 20% of our uranium to Russia. A lot of payoff was dispersed before that shady deal was signed.
Poetic justice: Mandatory minimum sentencing pushed by Republicans resulted in this unreasonable sentence of 5 years for setting fire to some remote bushes that threatened no one. The Hammonds are mean sick people who have been stealing public resources for their own poorly cared for livestock for years. They are typical Trump supporters; angry, authoritarian, self-serving, bigoted and mean....but 5 years for arson, even for them, is a bit much. Republicans will now only enforce their ridiculous mandatory sentences on liberals, while their friends get out for free. Stop this madness and VOTE.
4
This case from day one was about bureaucrats who were tired of working with these people and went about dealing with them with the collusion of BHO et al in the despotic governance method they so loved. Arson - good grief there are many fires that happen out here in the real world on public land human caused by accidents of many kinds that never see the light of day in any court of law. This was the type of legal action favored by this group of mean little bureaucrats that overwhelmed Washington DC during the BHO presidency. A man clearly with a mission. Good call T.
3
Yes, and while he is pardoning these criminals who damaged public lands (you know lands open to the public--not just ranchers), he is taking away funds for affordable health care.
I wonder if the Liar in Chief's supporters are tired of all this "best-health-care-at- the-best-price winning yet
3
These people destroyed public lands for their personal gain (really? burning brush to kill bacteria?). Wonder how Trump would feel if they were burning the streets in front of Trump Tower, or on his golf course in Bedminster, NJ. Those lands belong to all Americans, and while I have no issue to them being used for grazing (fee involved, of course), the charges against Hammond and his son were legitimate. I guess it takes a crook to save a crook.
8
Good old Greg Walden. Always on the wrong side of issues, and always kissing the behind of special interest groups.
1
I am sure Trump would be as quick to pardon one of his neighbors who set fire to the golf courses in Bedminster, Charlotte, Hudson Valley, or at Mar a Lago to stop an invasive species (take your pick). Right? They'd be "good people" too I am sure.
Oh wait, it wouldn't be a federal crime on private land (or would it since he is the president and didn't divest himself of the properties used by the government) but he'd want to pardon them. So so would he say, "I'd love to pardon you, believe me, but I can't. I would, but the Democrat's terrible laws won't let me."?
2
With these pardons Trump is once again signaling that if you violate federal law and do it with violence in the name of “state rights” you need not fear any consequences. The GOP’s “Southern Strategy” which delivered the South will now be deployed out West. No dog whistle here but a bullhorn.
9
Of course Trump pardoned these guys - they're criminals just like him.
10
A big Public Enemy pardons a bunch of little ones. Nothing to see here. But he will fall. We will all celebrate that great day.
Now get busy. November is coming.
6
Don the Con really wants to be king....loves to role play the part. Now he takes an action that will jeopardize the rest of us by condoning arson. Fire is a very serious issue in the West. The evidence shows that the Hammonds set the fire with no regard to how to control it, a heinous and extremely dangerous act that should have been punished.
9
He is the self appointed King and these are members of his court. What else would any commoner expect?
3
Be politically active. Eat less beef, esp. if marked grass fed. Vote with your pocket book. (You'll be healthier without all of the saturated fat anyway.)
6
Are these folks so dependent on public subsidies including extremely cheap grazing fees on public lands really ready to "take" these lands, purchase them, pay taxes on them, pay for their proper management (without further degrading them) and be able to compete economically? They do not wish to admit like most farmers dependent on the taxpayers that they may be cowboys and blowhards in the coffee shop, fly their "Don't Tread on Me" flags, vote for Republicans on election day, but they cannot deny their dependence on the Federal largesse and the consumption of their products by US taxpayers that make their independence possible. Can they really stand a true test of "taking"? In the west where they are so dependent on scarce water made available by great federal water works? In a west jeopardized by climate change and a great drying?
6
RE: "The federal government owns about half the acres in the West,"
Isn't it interesting that owners of property, including the wealthy, ranchers, and developers like the Trumps, believe that ownership gives them the rights to do with their properties a they wish without any pesky rules. They will argue against, and usually get their way, where private property rights conflict with public interest regardless of laws and zoning.
But these same people seem to believe that as a property owner the federal government has no rights in controlling or the use of its properties and they get to use and control it as if it were their own. And you know how these people would treat their neighbors if their neighbors treated their property as if it were theirs too.
What's mine is mine and whats yours is mine too.
8
Trump knows his base and plays to it. Much smarter than Obama who ended up alienating many of those who had supported him with arrogance and unwise "executive orders" that angered wide swaths of America. I'm no fan of Trump, but, he is not stupid.
5
Obama 's decisions were opposed every inch of the way by Republican hateful arrogance , he used his discerning intelligence and prerogative as POTUS for the good of the country.
5
Trump may wind wind up in jail. Lose his fortune. Ensure his children are forever viewed as participants in criminal activity.
And why? Possibly because he hated Obama.
I'd say that was pretty ignorant behavior. Clueless, ill informed, unbalanced, venal and destructive.
I cannot understand why anyone would defend a man like Donald Trump.
1
President Trump has a habit of pardoning vicious anarchists such as himself. The man is a danger to society. He has been doing harm to his fellow citizens for decades, and was mistakenly, bizarrely, elected a year and a half ago. Trump's reckless and probably illegal wheeling and dealing should have been curtailed years ago by sending this bad apple to prison.
21
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Same for Sheriff Joe.
Trump has no respect for the law or why people are sentenced. Meanwhile truly deserving individuals remain in prisons.
19
Part of an ongoing land swindle.Who better to assist than a flashy good guy land developer.
The surprise if they succeed will be from all the little "ranchers" when the "rangers" hired by the oligarchs enforce western justice. They're watching John Wayne films. The Kochs and their ilk are watching old footage of undesirables in Poland being slaughtered.
Whose water is it? Mark my words.
6
Consistent with the Arpaio pardon.
Violating the law or a court order is acceptable to Trump, if Trump disagrees with the law or court order.
15
Not only is breaking the law now acceptable (if you have the right skin color), it is rewarded - again, if you have the right skin color.
5
Are you organizing voters in any way? Phone banking? Are you standing against injustice in your personal life? When people spew racism at you, do you check the person or stay silent?
The human race has deals with these problems everyday and America revels in it. Trump is just pulling up a mirror. Is your face in that reflection?
But each of us has to decide how we’ll play our position. Bowing out and giving up is not an option.
Fight, fly or get eaten. Take your pick.
16
This is just wrong. These “ranchers” were criminals who stole from the people of the United States. And the Bundy’s are grifters of the worst sort.
28
Wrong on the first count but totally correct on the second. These Oregon ranchers were set upon by the bureaucratic machinery of the US wrongly for a nothing burgher event. The Bundy band on the other hand are grifters living off of the US. If it wasn't for the complete and overwhelming incompetence and arrogance of the US attorneys team they would and should be in jail.
Pardon the criminals who held publicly held property at gunpoint but separate an immigrant father from his 13 month old child. Pardon the criminals who held public property at gunpoint but threaten to penalize the WHO if they pass a resolution in support of breastfeeding over corporate baby formula. What is not to love about Donald?
34
If men of color were using federal land illegally, and set fire to that land to hide evidence of poaching, and threatened law enforcement with guns - the police wouldn't have left them alive, let alone a 'president' pardon them for their crimes.
42
Remember when the Republican Party used to sell itself as the party of law and order? This is just another reminder that it is actually the party of lawlessness and disorder wrapped in total hypocrisy, and the most lawless character of all is their president who is trying to turn us into a third rate dictatorship where laws have no meaning and the whole world is in compete disorder.
34
Nominate a Supreme Court judge to keep the president out of prison, and pardon criminals who took arms against the American government. What more can I say, about our country’s state of affairs?
30
This is part of a slow coup d'etat. The law will not be a restraint on Trump and his followers. It will be merely a tool of raw political power. Shame, shame, shame, on the Republican Party for allowing this to happen.
26
The rule of law? Forget it. This president would have pardoned Eichmann if there was something to gain in doing so. Donald Trump has nothing more in mind than Donald Trump from the moment he rises to the moment he goes to bed at night.
The American people have made a gross mistake in elevating this person to its highest political office. Worse, he isn't done yet. Far more outrages are in the offing.
23
Remember this pardon of two arsonists who were guilty as sin, the next time Jeff Sessions talks piously about "the rule of law" while he separates toddlers from their mothers.
25
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is right. Five years was an “unjust” sentence. They deserved at least 25 years for aiming their guns at law enforcement in addtion to the measly five years for burning down federal land to hide illegal poaching. Occupying and trashing federal property deserves another five at least. Did they pay the over $1 mil in grazing fines, fees and penalties they owe to the American tax-payer?
37
Wasn't President Trump just making a big deal about how we are a nation of laws? Zero tolerance for law breakers, etc.? Oh well.
15
This is also his way of gutting the Antiquities Act and reducing the scope of the Bureau of land management. Another example of Trump, his family and administration having no regard for the laws, culture and history of our country.
If someone told him that Mumia Abu Jamal was a good conservative Republican who loved Kayne and the party of Lincoln he would probably issue a pardon.
7
Well, it's a good thing that these guys didn't take a knee during the national anthem.
21
The charge of terrorism and sentence were ridiculous. That said, the Hammonds broke the law and deserved to go to jail for a spell, which they did. I am glad they were set free. However, they should not have been fully pardoned, which means in effect they never committed a crime.
5
The Hammonds do not deserve to be pardoned and they definitely do not deserve to be praised. However, their five year prison term was excessive. Trump should have commuted their sentence, nothing more.
4
My son is a wildlife biologist working in the national parks. So now the President has declared the reward for my son's public service is that the President is giving ranchers permission to freely wield their weapons against public employees or set fires or cause other mayhem that will endanger my son's life?
Make no mistake, the Republican leadership's goal is to destroy the American government as we've known it. All these years they've been railing about "big government" and how it doesn't work. Now that they are the government -- a kakistocracy of dunces -- they are like someone who crashes a car into a brick wall and says "see, I told you the car doesn't work."
27
Trump has, in a manner, been the East Coast version of these ranchers. In my mind, he’s done all of the things in his business world that the ranchers have done in their world if you look at their intentional ignoring of regulations, the rebelliousness, the petulance, the lack of respect for rules and the law.
No doubt Trump is viewing this as how he should be treated upon any possible conviction he would, could and should face.
13
More proof that Trump is willing to throw rule of law and pretty every other pillar of a properly functioning democracy under the bus to ensure his base keeps voting for him.
12
He's conditioning the base to equate the pardons he's handing out with the one he'll need to hand himself. It's contemptible, and it's impossible any longer to give Trump or Trump voter the benefit of any doubt. He's flouting the very idea of law. They're happy about it. And if there's a Republican left in Congress with any integrity left, they need to stand up now.
15
Pure obstruction of justice. (My definition)
8
Right now, Donald Trump is the most dangerous man on the planet. Everything he touches turns into a contorted mess. Lawlessness is encouraged, racism is rewarded, our allies are insulted, and using the powers invested in his office, he has now pardoned a pair of arsonists who were defying laws that protect public lands.
His excesses of egotism lead him to ignore the health of the people, the conservation of our environment, a respect for truth, and our role in the world to act as a model of freedom and democracy.
With every passing day we witness some new example of his allegiance to big business and the wealthy, his manipulation of his base with lies and barely concealed white supremacist ideals, and his contempt for the oath of office he swore to uphold.
We will survive this mockery of a presidency and we will get back to being the United States again, but we will have a lot of cleaning up to do.
12
Why does the Federal Government manage
about 1/2 the Land in the West.
Why can't most of that land be turned over to the
States ?
We don't have huge factories out here and we
don't have Silicon Valley.
Harvesting, in a proper manner, natural resources
is the work we do out here and would like to continue
to do.
1
Yeah, it's the "in a proper manner" that concerns me.
8
Why? What, are there are no history books in Idaho?
2
Why do “property rights” advocates always want something for free? The United States conquered that land with its army, traded property for railroads, and built most of the roads and water and power infrastructure that gives it value. Now you want it for free. Your states joined the union based on heavily negotiated transactions that you now want to weasel out of. No wonder you elected a fellow grifter as your President.
1
Want to stop supporting these arsonists and the cattlemen they're politically aligned with? Then stop buying beef and dairy. If it comes from a cow, have nothing to do with it. There are plenty of alternatives, such as bison (the American red meat) and coconut/almond/soy milk. Hit 'em where it hurts.
9
That's a good idea. Chicken and fish from now on for me.
The Bundy standoff was an act of rebellion against duly constituted authority which endangereda a number of people, among them the pardoned ranchers.
Should the opposition to President Trump reach a boiling point, I doubt Trump will be tolerant of similar displays by his opponents.
8
The reason past presidents have issued pardons towards the end of their term in office was to avoid the optics that they did so to benefit them politically.
Not so with Trump, who unabashedly makes it clear that most of he does as president is for the purpose of getting him re-elected.
11
From The Borowitz Report [all quote ->]
Man Wins “Why Trump Shouldn’t Go to Prison” Essay Contest
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A Washington, D.C., man has won a nationwide essay contest on the topic “Why Donald J. Trump Shouldn’t Go to Prison.”
The man, Brett Kavanaugh, received his award for the winning essay at a ceremony at the White House on Monday night.
Kavanaugh’s essay, which was distributed to the press shortly after he was announced as the winner, reads as follows: “Donald J. Trump should never go to prison because he is the President of the United States and the President of the United States is a very important person in the country. It would look bad if visitors from foreign countries came to the United States and asked, ‘Where is your President?’ and we had to say, ‘He is in prison,’ which in my opinion is another reason Donald J. Trump should not go to prison. For these reasons, if I am ever in a position to keep Donald J. Trump from going to prison, I will do that (keep him from going to prison).”
Shaking Kavanaugh’s hand, Trump heaped praise on him for his “very, very beautiful” essay, calling it “maybe the best essay that has ever been written.”
“I did not personally read it, but Ivanka read it aloud to me, and I thought it was fantastic,” Trump said.
-- [end quote]
Of course, there's encouraging armed insurrection and burning down other people's property too!
47
As a voting Oregonian living abroad, this pardon of white nationalists, and make no mistake that is what they are, despite howls to the contrary after their incarceration, was precipitated by Representative Greg Walden of Oregon's 2nd District. As I am registered in Oregon's 2nd, I can say without a doubt this was purely a political move by both Trump and Walden to shore up the rural, white conservative vote. Walden is facing pressure, perhaps for the first time in his career in Congress, from Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a tough Democratic candidate taking Walden to task for his role in revoking Net Neutrality (he's a major recipient of funds from Comcast) and voting against the Affordable Care Act's protections for those with preexisting conditions.
This is a distraction tactic. Yes the district is deep red, but this election will prove tough for Walden. Voters are tiring of him, his corporate connections don't resonate well many, and more liberal-minded people are in the district than in any election past, from Bend to Ashland. Walden's trick may backfire, as many Oregonians did not appreciate the Bundy gang invasion.
78
Thank you, Mr. Cochran. This is an eye-opener for me. It did seem an odd coincidence that, in the random assortment of situations available for pardon consideration, the one with the best justification would happen to align so closely with Mr. Trump’s efforts to court white supremacists.
(It also seems strange that these individuals would grab so readily at the governmental remedy when offered. Isn't that inconsistent with their principles?)
Anyway, I looked at Jamie McLeod-Skinner’s platform (https://jamiefororegon.com/). She wants to ensure that working families can make a livable income through a tiered and regionally-based minimum wage that’s tied to inflation. Interestingly, she mentions how embracing health care industry workers in that will have secondary benefits in terms of health care. She wants health care to be accessible to and affordable by all, through changes in the system that are more workable and people-friendly than what was slapped together last year. She’s a Second-Amendment supporter who advocates the same common-sense safety measures that most Americans support. She has an interesting plan for school safety grants. She wants to increase funding for public education and get better pay and resources for teachers, including special educators. She wants Oregon to get its share of the economic (and environmental) benefits of the clean energy industry. Looks good. I can’t afford much but I’ll send her a little - I hope it helps the state.
16
Thanks Tony for the background on the timing of the pardon. “Why now” puzzled me until I read your comment.
8
Thank you for caring about Oregon and the country! Walden is really quite corrupt. He's got to go. He's also completely in lock-step with the dangerous Trump administration.
"The federal government owns about half the acres in the West, ..."
-------
The federal government does NOT own about half the acres in the West. WE THE PEOPLE own the land. The federal government merely manages it on our behalf.
This is a critical point, because it means that those who abuse the land or take up arms against the government are in fact acting against their fellow Americans.
91
Wasn’t Huckabee Sanders all upset at being called a liar just a few weeks ago?
I guess she decided the shoes fit, after all.
27
I actually agree with Trump pardoning the Hammond's. But, I still question if any president should be able to pardon. It's a dangerous privilege given to single person.
7
Notice how venting our feelings in forums like this hasn't changed anything?
Notice how calling Donald Trump names hasn't changed anything?
It's normal to try to cope with pain in normal ways like getting angry and expressing ourselves, hoping to be heard and have an impact. But this has not worked and it will not work because the norms that support normal have been blown to bits.
HE AND HIS CLAN DO NOT CARE AT ALL WHAT YOU OR ANYONE ELSE THINKS, AND THEY WILL NEVER REVEAL WHAT THEY THINK. THEY HAVE NO INCENTIVE IN THAT DIRECTION. THEY ARE UTTERLY BRUTAL, INDIFFERENT AND CALCULATING AND HAVE BEEN FOR A LONG TIME. THEY HAVE MOUNTAINS OF INTOXICATING MONEY, AND ACCESS TO ALL THE LEVERS OF POWER. OUR CURRENT SITUATION IS THE FRUITION OF YEARS OF THEIR WORK.
To my surprise, admitting this to myself (though certainly not accepting it passively) has given me a good deal of peace. I don't want any of it to be true, but it is, and avoiding that reality was taking up more energy than I realized. Accepting reality has made space and given clarity to my mind.
I encourage everyone to explore this possibility for themselves.
I don't know how to make things better, but until we can accept the full scale of the horrible reality, we will have no real traction, and things will not improve.
22
Another racist anti-conservation pardon. More than sad, it’s sick.
44
Thank goodness! I live out in the central Oregon desert where these guys decided to start fires so they could poach game. I can now feel free to start fires out on BLM land here and I will be pardoned. Make America GReat Again! Hang on, I just burned my own home down...
64
From the US Attorney's Office District of Oregon website:
"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. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of the game violations. After committing the arson, Steven Hammond called the BLM office in Burns, Oregon and claimed the fire was started on Hammond property to burn off invasive species and had inadvertently burned onto public lands. Dwight and Steven Hammond told one of their relatives to keep his mouth shut and that nobody needed to know about the fire.
The jury also convicted Steven Hammond of using fire to destroy federal property regarding a 2006 arson known as the Krumbo Butte Fire located in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Steen Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area."
"The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal law, reasoning that “given the seriousness of arson, a five-year sentence is not grossly disproportionate to the offense.”
53
Ammon Bundy must be smiling ear-to-ear over this decision....
6
The Rule of Law means nothing to Trump.
50
The Bundy clan and their friends launched an armed takeover of public lands. That borders on treason and was far more damaging to America than what the Hammonds did.
The New York Times should tell it like it is.
26
So much for Republicans being the party of law & order. Baloney!
37
Criminal. Treasonous. Forgive rebellion and insurrection? What about when the pitchforks come for you, so-called president?
27
Despots, traitors, and now arsonists, Trump makes no secret of his penchant for criminals.
42
Gee, I wonder if Trump would pardon a minority family who burned down a public housing project attempting to exterminate vermin. It’s nice to be white in Trump’s America.
48
Looking forward to setting fires on federal land? Apparently it’s legal now.
Why, three people were arrested today in Colorado for leaving a camp fire unattended. 8 houses burned. According to Trump, Hammond, and the Bundy family, being reckless with fire is patriotic. Maybe the Bundys should race to the local Elks club and take it over until Trump pardons some more arsonists.
Trumps, Bundys, Hammonds, all families that think this Nation owes them something.
35
An entire country run for the benefit of 125,000 people.
12
I just.... I just can’t. Why?? Why would you pardon someone convicted of destroying federal property, that then inspired a “takeover” of federal property, which in turn ALSO cost the government millions of dollars? That is NOT JUSTICE. Not. Even. A. Little.
54
So the head of our government takes the position that people who take up arms against our country should receive pardons? Time for a Presidential take down.
58
There's one reason he did this.
Pandering.
Brace for more and more of this.
Brace for the emboldenment of those who would desecrate public lands as if they alone own the land.
Brace for additional standoffs, and watch law enforcement to be told to stand down.
Brace for encroachment into sensitive lands.
Brace for destruction of wilderness areas.
It's going to be a far more dreadful 4 years (hopefully no more) than I feared.
13
trump's motivation in pardoning these two men today (and of arpaio earlier), could be to send a message to manafort, cohen, flynn . . . that they have nothing to worry about.
The fool on the hill is also unwittingly sending a more ominous message by giving a green light to insurrection.
What these ranchers did was a rebellion. The jury who convicted them obviously weren't accepting their political defense.
36
I am thoroughly disgusted with the individule in the Oval Office unwillingness to read, gather opinions from experts and historians, consider carefully and run his ideas past a variety of people to flesh out his limited world view. Maybe it's not merely unwillingness, but he can't. And if that's so why isn't the traitorous Congress enacting measures to remove the worst and most incompetent person ever to hold the office of the President of the United States?
How is it possible to shame and destroy our longest, best allies while pardoning those committing arson on Federal land? And these not the worst of his egregious behavior
8
Those guys should all be in jail (And Trump, too.)
They should also be required to re-pay the Government the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars they owe for their illegal grazing on public lands.
29
I can't go on like this. I think I'll have to turn off the news for a couple of weeks. This is an evil alternate reality where up is down and down is up; good is evil and evil is good - not our country at all.
23
I just came off a break. It's OK. You can take a break. There will be people watching. Come back so others can take a break. We have to stay vigilant. But sane.
4
Again, Trump declares that he is above the law. Ranchers pay hardly anything to graze their cattle on government land and reap profits when selling the cattle for meat. Trump, as usual, is just looking for more votes from his anarchist base and only wants to be reelected again. He will go down as the worst president in the history of our country.
40
Thank you for this insight from the West. Most Easterners don't understand the significance of the welfare role in Western lands grazing. Same goes for their understanding of the region's ecology.
7
Really? Really?? Ok, now he's just trying to wreck anything and everything he can touch.
16
And yet, citizens who choose to kneel during a symbolic song make drumpf apoplectic. Hmmmm. It would seem that song represents some people more than others. I wonder why.
59
Another dogwhistle to the alt.right base...
21
Cowboys for $200, Alex.
Rule of law didn't apply here.
Who are the Hammonds?
Correct. The board is yours.
10
People seem to have missed the irony here. These fellows were put away for what really was a minor crime because of the Federal mandatory sentencing laws. These laws were largely pushed by Conservatives. The purpose of the laws were of course to put away Black and Hispanics, but when one of their own get caught in the web, then the Right raised an unholy howl.
Of course the Whites got pardoned and the minorities stay in jail.
17
Thank you. the hypocrisy of the Right Wing is astounding, isn't it?
8
"The federal government owns about half the acres in the West, ..."
-------
The federal government does NOT own about half the acres in the West. WE THE PEOPLE own the land. The federal government merely manages it on our behalf.
This is a critical point, because it means that those who abuse the land or take up arms against the government are in fact acting against their fellow Americans.
2
Thank you!
So, innocent immigrants are "murders" and "rapists" but convicted arsonists are heroes to Mr. Trump and deserve his mercy.
23
Unarmed blacks get shot. Armed whites get pardoned. Yeah, that's just about right.
83
"If you're white, you can occupy federal property ... and get found not guilty. No teargas, no tanks, no rubber bullets ... If you're indigenous and fighting to protect our earth, and the water we depend on to survive, you get tear gassed, media blackouts, tanks and all that."-Alicia Garza
59
Who really cares - they've served most of their sentence. Move on please.
1
The Hammond's claimed that they were setting the fires "to burn off invasive species and had inadvertently burned onto public lands." In fact "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. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of the game violations." Five year sentences are mandatory for arson on federal land. Trump continues to undermine the rule of law.
9
According to newspaper accounts, the Hammond's claimed that they were setting the fires "to burn off invasive species and had inadvertently burned onto public lands."
In fact "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. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land and destroyed all evidence of the game violations."
Five year sentences are mandatory for arson on federal land. Trump continues to undermine the rule of law.
2
What’s next from Trump? Some warm talk about Timothy McVeigh, a posthumous pardon?
Trump seeks to have a special place in his heart for antigovernment nutjobs.
48
Two more deplorables walk free. Trump is killing the rule of law. Trump is killing this country. If this cretin is allowed to remain in office much longer, there isn't going to be anything left of this once great Republic.
55
The criminal pardons the lawless and the stain grows larger.
35
A criminal pardons criminals. If this doesn't sound funny. Where is Hollywood?
14
As an American and a westerner who cherishes our splendid land, waters, and sky, I am appalled daily by the callousness and--let's be blunt--stupidity of this administration and the party running it.
As a lover of the New York Times, I am surprised at the errors in this article. Clearly no one proof-read it. I know that this is a small thing compared to the content, but many of us look to the Times to maintain all kinds of standards that are going to hell everywhere else.
Your fan, Harriet
26
Please America --VOTE in November!!!
28
What???!!!!
He pardoned someone for committing ARSON!
And on FEDERAL land owned by every USA citizen?
This is nuts.
52
Um, "Mr. Rosa" with no first name? A copy editor would have caught that.
2
I long for the day when that evil buffoon in the White House can be referred to in the past tense. It can’t happen soon enough for me
69
At some point he'll put known criminals in the WH..we already have enough.
16
Trump is a tool. Who is pulling the strings?
14
Do "ranchers" defecate all over without burying it, and use pick-up trucks to do donuts on fragile land?
16
Who's next, Timothy McVeigh ????? What a moron.
20
I feel ill.
18
On a service trip to a national monument last year I heard a park ranger tell of a recent encounter with a visitor whom he had told to stay on trail in a sensitive area(the man was cutting a switchback). The guy proceeded to pull up his shirt to expose a gun and told the ranger, "I've got one too and mine is bigger", In front of his family mind you. Trump just emboldened all these types today to exhibit more of this terrible behavior. As an employee of the US Forest Service this scares the hell out of me.
66
What ever happened to the Republicans respect for the law? Should not main stream Republicans be offended by this? Its not just Trump that lost (or never had) a moral compass.
20
Sop after sop after sop. Trump throwing scraps to his base.
This is all a court of opinion race to beat Mueller in an actual court of law.
In every case, the casualty list includes stuff that's actually good for America. This time it's the rule of law itself not to mention sensible policies regarding protection of fragile public lands.
They might blanch at the notion, but the Hammonds and those like them who graze cattle either for free or at deeply discounted rates (as measured against rents on private land), are simply welfare recipients. They may work hard--like many other welfare recipients--but that doesn't change the direction the money is flowing.
As a longtime resident of the West with a deep appreciation for our most beautiful spaces in this great country, I take this stuff personally. Cows wreck things like rivers, marginal lands, and forests.
Most of the people involved in the Malheur standoff in my state, Oregon, were not even from Oregon. There was a lot of make believe in that crew. "Rancher" LaVoy Finnicum mainly ranched foster children instead of cows as his main source of income. Brian Cavalier (one of the Bundy's bodyguards) got all inked up and tried to pass himself off as a Marine sniper. He never served.
These are violent, well-armed people with a powerful sense of entitlement and an exceedingly poor grasp of either history or fact.
This is who Trump is tossing the sops to. He's fomenting civil war.
54
So it's ok to take over a government facility with weapons as long as you have a good family history and have been active in the community?
Does Huckabee Sanders have any thoughts of her own? any semblance of pride and dignity? I suppose if Trump told her he believes Putin when he says he didn't meddle in our elections but he's going to issue Putin a blanket pardon from any sanctions just in case something pops up, that she would mouth what he said word for word.... Putin seems to be good to his family, is definitely involved in the community, and has the full support of law enforcement. Sounds like a slam dunk to me.
19
"The occupation, led by the Bundy family, drew hordes of militia members who commandeered government buildings and vehicles in tactical gear and long guns, promising to defend the family."
Geez, good thing they didn't use cellphones to fend-off the Fed'Ral Gov'Ment, eh? Some people get shot dead in the back for that.
Oh, wait...
8
Trump does not pay his bills.
Bundy does not pay his bills.
It is only natural for trump to defend his own base.
31
Maybe Trump should pardon LaVoy Finicum, the crazy cowboy who pulled his gun against two Oregon State Troopers after a traffic stop. At least Finicum can't cause any more problems.
6
This is an absolute outrage.
20
Is there any depth to which trump will not sink in order to throw red meat to his base? Every time we think we have reached the bottom, he shows himself to be even more despicable than we had believed possible.
Wait, I just saw that he has further damaged the ACA! It's hard to keep up with all this winning
13
Trump’s actions are breathtaking...
Fast n Loose doesn’t begin to describe his utter indifference to Presidential conventions and traditions...
Trump is absolutely uninhibited ...
11
Shall we compare their "protests" with those of Colin K and subsequent treatment?
7
The land was Federal land? The Federal government didn’t “take it over.” Are you referring to when we signed the Oregon Treaty in 1846?
12
Such a great president...we love you Donald.
1
Still confirming he has no ethical or moral centre, Trump has trumpeted it again.
54
I watched closely what happened in 2016. Sanders' statement, “The previous administration, however, filed an overzealous appeal that resulted in the Hammonds being sentenced to five years in prison. This was unjust.” is very accurate.
6
A true victory for the American independent spirit and for those fighting government takeover of their lands.
3
It’s not their land. It’s all our land. They have no rights to commit felonies on it.
17
This is just unconscionable. Trump finds new ways to degrade the American presidency on an hourly basis.
66
By pardoning these men, who led an armed standoff against the federal government, the President of the United States sends a message to anti-government groups, telling them that armed insurrection against the government of the United States is perfectly OK with him.
20
Reactionary who criminally occupies federal land pardons reactionaries who criminally occupied federal land.
This should surprise exactly no one. Disgust, but not surprise.
13
The Hammonds became a cause celebre' because they actually went to jail for breaking the law. Having worked for USDA for 30 years, I saw many cases of farmers and ranchers receiving taxpayer subsidized loans, payments, grazing permits, etc. and then they defaulted, lied, cheated, stole collateral for loans and threatened government officials trying to protect the taxpayer's interest. I am highlighting the word taxpayer, because for many their way of life is subsidized in a variety of ways by the taxpaying public. For ranchers it is grazing permits at vastly reduced rates compared to the market. For grain farmers it is various commodity payments, subsidized crop insurance, disaster payments, ethanol subsidies. I can't recall one case of someone who committed fraud or deceit who went to jail because the U.S. Attorney knew the sympathy would always be with the poor farmer and the view was the were just a victim of a heavy handed government. While the majority of farmers and ranchers I worked with were honest, there was a significant percentage we gamed the system and had a sense of entitlement. The Hammonds clearly had a sense of entitlement. People need to remember federal employees merely implement laws passed by Congress. The shouldn't have to be afraid of being threatened because they are doing their job. I suspect the US Attorney's office finally just got fed up with these people thumbing their nose at the law and threw the book at them. It's not common.
21
These men are anarchists that jeopardized lives in addition to using public land for profit. Frankly, I am not sure that this national will ever turn around it is so far gone.
21
Pardoning arsonists who put federal agents' lives at risk is another disgraceful attack on law enforcement and the Department of Justice. Trump knows that eventually it will be the laws of our land that bring him down, so he doing as much damage as possible while he is able. Justice lost today.
18
Notice how their anti-goverment stance applied when Obama was President...How about now, do they feel the same as before? What changed? Oh I see...
40
You make a great point! Trump just won more crazy supporters to fill his half empty rallies
3
Poor Sarah Huckleberry Sanders. She's never going to be able to eat in any Mexican restaurant anywhere in the world. Though, on the plus side, I imagine every steak house in Eastern Oregon has the welcome mat out for her.
37
The Founders saw presidential pardons as a last resort for people wronged by the courts.Trump could have easily pulled out of a hat a few lucky recipients of pardons among the thousands of non-violent, wrongfully convicted Black and Hispanic inmates languishing in prison instead of granting clemency to Mr. Hammond. I can understand Arpaio for being a faithful and loyal Trump supporter and even Alice Marie Johnson as her recommendation came from his fellow reality t.v. star Kim Kardashian. But an Oregon rancher? Who helped pull the strings to get this guy pardoned?
16
All the law and order types out there should really love this Trump action. The next time there is a highway blockade Trump needs to pardon everyone arrested. After all they didn't have long guns and pistols. But in the Trump universe law and order is stood on its head. Law and order types are happy with the change in meaning. After all who exactly has the last say in law and justice and, dare I say it, order? This irrational country gets to choose its leader recklessly, of course--and the meaning of everything, head stands and all.
15
Cows, carbon, carbines, all gone in thirty years. It matters not what the past does.
4
If these men showed up at one of Trump's hotels or on one of his gold courses armed and and decked out the same way they were when they confronted federal law enforcement officers, I'm sure Donald Trump would welcome them with open arms. Might even get a few selfies with his biggest fans.
Yeah, I'm kidding.
6
Road trip to Mar a lago anyone?
4
I think that all the National Parks should be turned over to donald.Let's have BIG gold signs at Yellowstone,the Grand Canyon,at Yosemite.TRUMP in gold letters.Ivanka should get more than 500 million dollars from China, let them in to the deal too.Who cares about our beautiful land, there is money to be made.Shame on all you socialists!
11
I have read all the facts. These people are domestic terrorists. "Peaceable assembly" does NOT include the right to point loaded rifles at federal officers and threaten them. It does not include the right to commit arson or graze cattle on fragile areas of federal land. It does not include the armed occupation of wildlife preserves.
7
The comments of that dope Huckabee Sanders are ludicrous. These are criminals convicted by a jury in federal court. The fact that there might have been "conflicting evidence" or that they were acquitted of some of the charged crimes has absolutely nothing to do with their guilt or innocence for the charges for which they were lawfully convicted. Comes as no surprise to me that Trump and his minions will do anything it takes to shove their hateful agenda down our throats, even flat out rejecting the lawful court process. Not a day goes by without some new outrageous action surfacing at the hands of these despicable people. I am truly ashamed to be an American in these times.
126
Trump and these Oregon ranchers have something in common. Both believe the law applies to everyone but them.
26
The so-called "Law and Order" president pardons domestic terrorists.
This is a dangerous thing for Trump to do. What exactly is the message he's sending? That it's OK to commit arson and stage armed insurrections on federal lands?
Is this a telegraph to the armed extremist fringe that makes up part of his base?
Republican party, please wake up and reign in your creature before it's too late.
42
Three who allegedly left campfire unattended are arrested for igniting High Chateau Fire. They will not get a pardon for an unintentional act.
Dwight L. Hammond, now 76, and his son, Steven D. Hammond, 49 intentionally and maliciously started a wild fire. They were lucky no one was killed.
They were angry and deliberately started a fire.
13
Reading the comments here it appears many people have conflated the Bundy occupation of the Malheur ranger station with the case against the Hammonds. The occupation was styled as a protest against the Hammonds' conviction for poaching game and starting a fire on federal lands. The Hammonds were not convicted for that occupation - their felonious conduct preceded it.
The Hammonds were offered a sweetheart plea deal before trial. They steadfastly refused and insisted on going to trial to make a point - that the danged feds had no right to tell them what to do on public land. A jury heard the evidence and convicted them. District Judge Hogan, who presided over the trial, declined to impose the sentence required under federal sentencing guidelines, apparently based on his own sympathy with the Hammonds political views.
The Court of Appeals overruled Judge Hogan.
What the Hammonds did put the lives of firefighters at risk. It was arson. It was no laughing matter A jury heard the evidence and found them guilty of a federal felony. This was by no means an arbitrary and capricious pursuit of innocent citizens by a rapacious, inflexible regulatory agency. The Hammonds were not convicted by a bunch of east coast libtards - they were convicted by a jury of their peers in their federal district in Oregon.
Setting the Hammonds free is a travesty; and in doing so, Trump also legitimizes the Bundys' armed, terrorist occupation of Malheur in support of the Hammonds' criminality.
156
Alan Einstoss, you should check the facts. LaVoy Finicum had a loaded gun in his pocket when he was shot. He was on record, in several interviews, saying he would certainly shoot law enforcement officers and that it would be their fault, not his. See, he didn’t recognize their authority over him. The “freedom loving patriots” were mostly unemployed gun toting white guys who could not get their story straight, had no plan, and left the wildlife refuge vandalized and covered in filth. Those are the facts.
11
Thank you for a clear, articulate explanation. This makes me ill.
6
This should be a NYT pick. Excellent comment.
14
The sleaze machine keeps getting sleazier by the minute. I can barely stand to hear of it anymore. Justice is under attack and now that we have a lunatic in the White House we see the major weakness in our system of Government. The executive branch was given way too much power by the framers. It took a horrific outcome like this to fully realize how critical a mistake that was.
10
Trump pardons more criminals, desensitizing us all to hearing about pardons — anticipating pardons for his mob family, crook friends and treasonous co-conspirators, and himself, in the months and years to come. Truly corrupt to the core, this rot is what Republicans have given to the country in exchange for tax breaks and SCOTUS appointments.
7
Trump is a clown......it’s the supporting cast in the White House and the GOP who are accomplices in this debacle. People have short memories, as when Obama was elected and failed to prosecute Cheney and Rumsfeld for lying about the Iraq War. We as a country will live with the reverberations of this criminal and treasonous administration for generations to come.
8
Trump is the same fellow (and these are the same Trumpistas) who bark about 'enforcing the law' by tossing women and children fleeing violence and seeking asylum here into cages and tents in the desert.
The law is a mere inconvenience, readily tossed aside, to the extent it might apply to gun-toting, bible-thumping, know-nothing, right wing old white guys.
But if you're a two year old Syrian girl or a three year old Guatemalan boy, darn well better toe the line, kid. And don't gimme that baloney about 'due process.' You're no better than an insect, here to 'infest' our beloved country, and insects don't get no stinkin' due process.
Is this a great country, or what?
Hint: No, it isn't. It's an embarrassment. An abomination. It should bow its head in shame.
24
Maybe we’ll get lucky and Donnie will pick up some of that Russian poison while he’s in London.
50
Let's occupy Trump Tower and golf courses! If the ownership
of federal land bequeathed by our forefathers to all Americans
means nothing, why should private ownership?
30
Well, I guess if someone burns the White House he needn't fear any consequences.
16
Someone is, and indeed no consequences.
7
Trump is full on off his rocker and/or evil. There is no other explanation for this lunacy.
11
I assume that Timothy McVeigh (post - lethal injection) is next. He is a much better symbol of resistance to the federal government and as a bonus, can't blow anyone else up
9
If these guys weren't white and members of NRA would they have bren treated the same?
72
Yes.
What if they were Black Panthers? Or worse-- that they kneeled at football games during the National Anthem.
This guy is a hoodlum and is the disgrace to the country.
15
Rhetorical question AJ?
1
So, I'm wondering who's next. The late Timothy McVeigh?
40
Over zealous sentencing by the Obama justice dept.led to the freedom loving Patriots demonstration on Federal Land led to the FBI shooting of an unarmed protestor ,Rancher and friend of Ammon Bundy.Please read all the facts before you decide in this decision.
4
Not patriots. Domestic terrorists. Radical Christian domestic terrorists.
12
No. They violated their lease agreement, committed arson, burned 139 acres, endangered firefighters’ lives, cost millions of dollars of OUR tax money, and were rightly convicted. There’s no reason for amnesty. They are unrepentant criminals.
5
Unarmed? ... LaVoy Finicum had a loaded gun ... please get your alternative facts straight.
2
This "president" is heck-bent on currying favor with every ugly element of what is supposed to be the USA. Nazis & white supremacists (Cville), xenophobics (Arpaio), and anarchists (Hammonds). All of them would destroy other people and property as a necessary means to live their privileged lives. None of them sees the long game, and Trump would no more spend an hour sitting next to them in their homes than he would swallow a live rat.
9
Anti-establishment: Check
Anti-government regulation: Check
Prosecuted during Obama era: Check
Pro-gun (really, really pro-gun): Check
Religious extremists: Check (FDLS offshoot)
Sympathized by Trump base: Check
White: Check and double-check
Male: Check and double-check
Yep, this dangerous, violent fringe element checks a lot of boxes for Trump. To most of us, they’re like a bad rerun of “Deliverance.”
65
Trump might be the dumbest person in recorded history. Do not leave your children a large inheritance.
19
It was more than just a leak, and more than one fire. According to the US Attorney's Office press release (2015), one fire was set to hide evidence of illegal hunting (poaching)- several deer slaughtered on public land. The son claimed fire was accidental escape- started on their land to burn weeds and escaped to public land.
The fires may not have burned a lot of acreage, but they were intentionally set and had the potential to be catastrophic and harm lives and property.
People who accidentally start wildfires on national forest and other public lands are charged and sentencing includes jail time and/or restitution of costs. A recent fire in Colorado was started by people shooting firearms with tracer bullets. Will they be pardoned because... Second Amendment?
I don't think the Hammond resentencing was fair, or needed. But apparently it is in line with the current US AG's policy of making judges impose the mandatory minimums (at least for drug offenses).
7
How about pardoning the little kids at the border whose only crime was choosing desperate parents who were willing to risk everything for a chance for a better life for their families?
19
White Christian Male Terrorist ?
Come on down....the water's warm.
Non-white, non-Christian terrorist and women ... go directly to prison and enjoy that forced pregnancy prison term.
November 6 2018
62
Then again, the Hammond's ranch - so I read - is some 10,000 acres. Safe to assume the Hammonds aren't poor. No wonder Trump sympathizes. Hammond is another rich guy who expects the feds to subsidize his ranching operation with unrestricted access to federal land and little regulatory oversight. How could Trump not love this guy?
39
You may be correct in your assessment of what Hammond expects, but Ranchers, in general, are hardly what one would consider rich. 10,000 acres in eastern Oregon is worth less than 10 acres where you live. Hammonds aren't rich by Trump's standard.
3
And political gain for Trump, both in clenching absolute power over the GOP and as a backhanded threat to attempt to neutralize the Mueller investigation.
5
Pardoning elements of your base, no doubt to please higher levels of support in your base, is the basic work of dictators. And gangster types. I doubt if there is any crime Trump would not pardon if it enthralled the heavily armed, unregulated, but increasingly organized American gunmen.
29
This so-called President can be depended upon to side with the wrong side of just about every issue. His destructive effect on our country, our position in the world, our mores and standards, will take decades to repair, if ever.
26
As someone raised in the "wild" west, and being taught that people who poached on public lands were criminals and unpatriotic, I find President Trump's pardon mystifying. Perhaps he is afraid of these people. Perhaps he thinks if he panders to them, they won't blow up his estate or his golf courses or his winery or squat at Camp David (which he doesn't like tho the wife and kid do). But more likely, he doesn't like the bad press on the Kavanaugh nomination and the increasing focus on his meeting next week with bff Vlad, so he seeks to shift the public's attention. No such luck.
23
Americans new that Trump was neither Republican nor Christian, neither Conservative nor Moral when they voted for him. What surprises is how "so called" Christian Consevative Sarah Hucklebee would so outrageously defend him
9
I am sorry, as I believe that this will encourage and empower more of the same illegal activity. These people broke the law, destroyed and damaged public property, and incurred tremendous costs to local,state, and federal governments. Their sentences were fair and deserved. This is a loss for both justice and the preservation of public lands. Our tenure here on earth is a mere speck of geological time, and our sacred obligation is to preserve this land for those who will follow us.
19
These pardons are a dangerous precedent. He's allowing Americans to take the law into their own hands, which can include arson or other damage to public property (or persons...).
So if an American doesn't like "the law" -- whatever law that happens to be (which can include filing a tax return) -- then the person can take matters into their own hands. They can make their own interpretations of the law, and administer their own sense of "justice" accordingly.
It's little wonder we see in the news of people asking for someone else's "papers"...
Pardons should be used judiciously. To do otherwise invites anarchy.
16
Nothing really new here. When Trump and Sessions talk about bringing "law and order" and "fighting the drug war" what they mean is coming down with the full force of law on the weak, i.e. immigrants, people with dark skins, non Christian religions, etc. The rich and well-to-do and white will be treated solicitously.
Expect the same from the Supreme Court. An individual suing a corporation (or their employer) is going to lose with a 5-4 decision regardless of the facts of the case. The Supreme Court has always supported police and prosecutors regardless of how much they suppressed evidence or lied to courts and juries. Expect them to support law enforcement even more so -- that is as long as they are after the poor and dark-skinned. In the trump world, police need to not bother the white and wealthy.
17
Neither can I. What happened to the Party of Law and Order?
9
Surprised? Doesn't this president make the wrong decisions about everything?
25
Robert Deniro is correct.
33
Not too surprising. Trump has made it clear that if Americans shoot Americans, that's no problem. It's only a problem if it's a foreigner who shoots Americans. So I guess if you're an American who commits acts of terrorism, that's no problem either.
It's no longer the crime that matters, only the nationality of the person who commits it.
28
Small wonder they were pardoned by Mr. Trump because the Bundy clan and Mr. Trump are extremely like-minded when it comes to enriching themselves at the expense of taxpaying citizens. Foolish consistency truly is the hobgoblin of little minds.
13
By pardoning lawbreakers like Joe Arpaio and now the Hammonds, Trump is sending out a clear message to his base -
#Make the West Lawless Again!
32
So let's see,,,,we'll ship off latinos, take their kids away at the border. Many of those being shipped out of the country have lived here for decades, working hard at multiple jobs. Not causing problems. An old white guy threatens anarchy, challenges the law and is pardoned. The Trump administration has gone from repugnant to ..... adjectives fail me at this point.
25
"Deplorable" was and remains too kind.
8
Of course he did.
9
Vote... vote... vote! This is the only legal solution to put a stop to this. There are some good Republicans, let's not forget that. There's nothing more any of us can do to legally stop the SCOTUS from being a conservative court. Staying home or making excuses why "we" don't vote is to exactly how we got in this mess and we got the country we never imagined and took for granted. Even if Trump is impeached there's no undoing his decisions. I don't even want to think about the SCOTUS nullifying the Mueller investigation and it's fallout. McConnell outsmarted Reid and Reid hook, line, and sinker made a horrible decision invoking the nuclear option on court judge nomination. Dems apitimize stupidity and ignorance. Nothing personal.
12
I agree. But the “good “ Republicans are few and far between and their Party left them long ago. Vote against every and all Republicans no matter what. They have become traitors and can’t be trusted.
11
So if you’re white and are convicted for committing a federal offense, you get a presidential pardon, but if you are black or brown and commit a misdemeanor, you get sent to prison for life and/or have your children taken away from you, that’s if you don’t get shot by the police first.
109
Not unless Kim Kardashian intervenes on your behalf...
6
Yes. By all means. Make this about race. It's apparently all you've got, at this point. Completely wrong, of course, but all you've got.
2
What a time to be white in America!
23
When wasn't a time for be white in America?!
11
Uh, no - that's incorrect. It was 4.8 million pounds. But the right wing press got a lot of mileage over the misstated amount. Apparently someone conveniently forgot to move a decimal point.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/garbage-haul-at-dakota-access-camps-re...
2
There are pictures on-line, of a young member of this clan, beaten, scarred, allegedly the victim of abuse by the pardoned duo. https://www.thedailybeast.com/oregon-rancher-heroes-accused-of-child-abuse
None of this would surprise us. Abusive thugs who didn't want to pay tax, felt entitled to federal hand-outs. Right in Trump's own modus operandi.
28
"In all his pardons, Mr. Trump bypassed the typical process (a five-year waiting period is required for requests to be made to the Justice Department) and passed over the more than 10,000 pardon and clemency applications."
So if you're championed by a celebrity, or can serve as red meat for the base, you get to walk. Everybody else, stay in line.
11
Representative Greg Walden had a lot to do with getting the pardon. He ranted about how unfair the punishment was for the Hammonds, but I never heard that the Republicans in Congress did anything about it. Heck, all I've heard is that they are killing democracy in this country. Walden wanted something to use in his re-election campaign to show how much he does to make his constituents' lives better...which is very little.
8
No pardons based on merit, just on whim and politics. Did he pardon them for the child abuse they committed on their boy? Taking sandpaper to his chest as punishment? Endangering the lives of Federal workers & firefighters? All to cover up poaching on Federal lands? Real upstanding folk, who already acted as if the law doesn't apply to them, now a free pass. Clearly Trump identifies with them.
23
Trump exacerbates climate change that causes widespread drought - then releases proven arsonists from jail. What could go wrong?
8
This will encourage lawbreakers! It will also endangered law enforcement. Isn’t a President supposed to uphold the laws of this country? 45 is doing everything he can to undermine all that’s good and decent. I have never been as concerned about the future of our country as I’m now.
11
As a birder who has visited Malheur, this sickens me. This bunch occupied a Federal office on the refuge, damaged research documents on work computers, tore down fences, and refused to let Federal employees come in to do their work. I wonder if Trump would pardon a bunch of liberal conservationists for doing the same to EPA offices while protesting the agency's utter disregard for its mission to protect the environment?
44
I just telephoned my son, the Park Ranger, and reminded him to get an extra weapon to protect himself at home. The president of the U.S. has just put a target on his back and the back of every civil servant who is sworn to protect our public lands. The greatest single threat to law and order in this country is Donald J. Trump.
Signed-
a former conservative.
46
Obviously, the right to pardon by the president of the United States is something that should be abolished.
23
This is beyond a disgrace. But elections have consequences.
7
Indeed Trump has declared war on the employees that attempt to manage our lands and protect our buildings. Any sign that a person is a park ranger, law enforcement ranger or outhouse cleaner will mean that person has a target on their backs thanks to Trump and his benign thought process and his great need to erase anything Obama.
11
This administration's bigotry and bias self-evident.
Here we have the Hammonds, sentenced to 5 years for arson, which Trump considers unfair. Yet, Trump shut down the clemency program for non-violent drug offenders whose sentences are often measured in quarter centuries! Thousands upon thousands of candidates have been vetted and he could review any one of their files if he were so willing. But, Kardashian photo-ops aside, he isn't.
Or consider Trump's sudden concern with "conflicting" evidence of guilt. Did he not reiterate that the Central Park 5 deserved the death penalty? Their convictions were overturned because of such things, but Trump would (to this day) see them executed if he could.
Or there's the biased use of discretion. Just weeks ago Trump, Sessions and the hardliners were saying they had "no choice" but to punish mere trespassers by seizing their children; always a ridiculous lie since they had previously stated that they were doing so as a "deterrent." But it is made even more obvious by Trump's eagerness to use his discretion to make life easier for a pair of convicted arsonists.
Note also that the Bundy clan's reaction to the Hammonds' arson conviction was armed insurrection against the federal government (#MAGA). Trump is curiously quiet about that. Yet the president sees fit to treat kneeling football players like traitors.
Bigoted rhetoric has turned into bigoted actions... as every one of us (including Trump supporters) KNEW it would.
26
Of course Trump supports arsonists and other miscreants.
The Joker has taken over City Hall-- and we have no Batman.
9
Are we pardoning people who set forest fires, now? Seriously! What kind of message does that send? It's a good thing Osama Bin Laden isn't still alive, or Mr. Trump would pardon him, just to undermine Obama.
23
I watched a documentary where a police officer said he was voting for Trump because he supported law enforcement. What a joke that's turned out to be.
46
Was the presidential pardon meant for someone to push teir own agenda against the decisions of the courts? What happened to the separation of powers? This must stop!
15
Right on. One good thing Trump has done.
4
Please explain why, use your words to build a convincing argument why you support excusing law-breakers and lawlessness.
12
trump keeps giving pardons to those who aspire to be just as much a crook/criminal as he is. I can only see these pardons as a part of his rationale for later when he uses them on his family, friends, and himself. They say practice makes perfect. Enough is Enough!
9
More pandering to Trump's base. Whatever happened to "the law is the law?" Whatever happened to "we are a nation of laws?" We never hear the end of that rhetoric to justify breaking up families who are trying to apply for asylum and seeking a better life. But now, people who blatantly resort to arson and violence because they lost a land dispute in court receive a get-of-out-jail-free card from Trump. It's a nod and a wink to domestic terrorists. What a load of hypocritical nonsense.
15
They haven't yet? Well, call me shocked.
When will they have a memorial service for the Battle of Bowling Green? Your comment and mine describe the moldy mind(less) set of the Trump "presidency".
5
You must be referring to Trump's pardon of Jack Johnson. Shame Mr. Johnson could not join Sylvester Stallone and Mr. Trump at the oval office photo opp ... Mr. Johnson has been dead for 60+ years.
4
I think the word Trump has problems with is "public". Public health, public schools, public lands...all bad. He must think that only suckers care about the community as a whole.
Too bad he can't dig up Timothy McVeigh and adopt him.
19
The father-son game poaching duo who lit a fire to cover their tracks are released from their well deserved prison term. Are we back to the old west? Whomever shows at a Federal game reserve armed is welcome to take it over? Please inform our Oval Office resident village idiot, releasing the Hammonds now gives the green light to other natural resource law breakers. Foresters, range conservationists, wildlife biologists, fisheries biologists, and all other outdoor professionals are now at risk. What will it take to stop the evil, chaos creating, lie spewing Trump??? America??? Are you there?
19
Well, the crook in the White House rewarding bad behavior and criminal activities to insure the name Obama is erased from our history.
Gotta love the fact we let con artists, grifters and common thieves (think Pruitt) and liars into the People's House.
I suppose crime does pay and their is honor among thieves.
I shall never, never again state Nixon was a crook. He was a choirboy in comparison to Trump.
8
And now they are eligible to be Supreme Court Justices. Next time, maybe...
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/faq_general.aspx
4
More membership cards for the King Over Law Club. Join with Arpaio (law enforcement officer guilty of repeatedly violating civil rights), Scooter Libby (disclosed the identity of an undercover CI A operative to get revenge for her husband contradicting Bush administration lies) and Dinesh D’Souza (illegal political contributions).
YEP.
For the so-called president, allegiance to HIM trumps everything including respecting the law.
15
How much more evidence do we need that Trump sides with anti-government armed extremists, white supremacists, and Russian authoritarians against everyone and every value that has ever Made America Great?
30
Who's next to get a pardon? Jeffrey Epstein?
3
SHS doesn't think arson is a big deal. Laws? Old white thugs are above them in Trump's america.
16
The Hammonds called in armed militant conspiracy theorists who dreamt of taking on the American government in a firefight. Their principal was that they should be able to graze cattle on federal lands without paying. Trump encourages these wackos.
32
Can pardons for treason be far behind?
17
This is already a pardon for treason.
9
So *that's* why he claims the right to pardon himself.
1
Trump gets more sickening every day. His obvious love of Nazis, White Supremacists and Fascist Cults is horrific.
But now, when I meet a Trump supporter, I can't see past the Racism and Bigotry that has become the Republican Party.
It's sad for me because I always felt connected and supportive of all hard working Americans. After 2016 I will never be able to see Trump, his party and his followers as anything but deplorable.
17
Donald J. Trump, president of wrong.
18
Perhaps the presidential pardon should be restricted to the last few weeks of the term. It appears increasingly that Trump is wielding the power of the pardon for personal and political gain while hinting at the use of it versus the Mueller investigation in a way that might obstruct justice.
27
The conviction seems correct, based on the facts and the law as reported in this article.
What would be a valid basis for pardon is the excessive minimum sentence required by the law.
This law which should be amended to avoid future miscarriages of justice.
1
We are a nation of laws, unless you're an old, white man who has broken a law that Trump does not like.
If you are a small child, on the other hand, and come to this country and LEGALLY seek asylum by just showing up (the only way to seek asylum) Dumpster will lie (as usual) and brand you and your parent(s) as criminals and throw you in a cage and then Dumpster will break more laws by refusing to obey a lawful court order to reunite the child with his or her parents. Lies and lawbreaking are all we get from this administration (unless you're an old wrinkled white, male criminal, in which case Trump identifies with you and you will get a pardon).
50
This is a perfect illustration of what republicans mean when they talk about "law and order": law and order are malleable as long as you are the right kind of person. If you are the wrong kind of person, they must be upheld on principle.
25
Once again Donald Trump sets out a truly bad, legal precedent by pardoning criminals. How can one expect the rule of law to be obeyed if the President himself doesn't support its proper enforcement? Joe Arpaio was bad enough! Where will this stop, perhaps with Donald Trump pardoning family members or even with an attempted pardon of himself?
31
What if activists take over another Federal property, the former US Government post office in Washington DC where Trump inserted a hugely profitable hotel?
44
That is the correct question to ask. In fact, I just had that conversation this morning with a fellow environmental activist. The FS is currently preparing a local timber sale that, by its own analysis, will greatly damage water quality. We are prepared to do the hard drudgery of democracy, i.e.: read the EIS, identify the inevitable flaws and submit written testimony prior to the deadline for public comment. But after these pardons why not take the Hammond way and simply occupy the site of the sale with guns? Heck, we might be liberal environmentalists but we're just as well armed as anyone else.
7
Now that's pretty scary! Those guys come from the same mold as Randy Weaver of Ruby Ridge.. I was watching Bill Maher the other week and his guest Col. Lawrence Wilkerson [Ret] said he was conversing with a Senator about the possibility for civil war or armed uprising under a Trump administration. If Trump is pardoning people like this- I too think the potential for something stupid to happen is very real.. The big question is will Trump win in 2020.. ? Or if he's defeated will he concede and leave the White House? Please start thinking and preparing for this scenario now- I said from the beginning, our nation under Trump is going to get worse- long before it gets better..
54
Mr. Maher is quite believable as is Col. Wilkerson. Does Trump in fact believe he and he alone can save this country from every threat he can imagine (or has been planted by his supporters) and he will not leave until he believes his job is complete.
I hope that Col. Wilkerson's prophesy does not bear fruit, but, I fear it may due to extreme polarization, the playing of him against us by using the martyr play book.
2
Trump has been laying the ground work for a right-wing coup since before the 2016 election. His well armed followers are being prepared to take up arms against all the "snowflakes" and the "deep staters" who oppose his chaotic administration. I guarantee it will take more than an election to remove Trump from office. Get ready.
3
These ranchers are lawless people. They will violate laws and the rights of others instinctively. They are the reason that there are courts and law enforcement. What will Trump do when they commit their next felonies?
22
Since they have been pardoned, I wonder if they are able to vote in 20/20? Once a felon - always a felon. Or does their right to vote get a clean slate too? We are no longer a country of laws, just immortal decisions.
1
A pardon removes the crime from a person's record.
Good for you, Mr. Trump that you pardon domestic terrorists but hold infants less than one year old in confinement away from their parents because they pose a threat to national security. Your minions must be so proud.
47
Trump doesn't use pardons to right injustices... he uses them to engender himself to fanatics that will prop up his fascist movement... people with a proven background of dismissing ALL laws that they don't agree with. These are MASSIVE abuses of power by a fledgling Dictator building up his base of Brown Shirts. Where are the GOP Congress people who vowed to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this nation? It's become beyond obvious to me that November will be the last chance for Americans to stop this lawless slide into a Fascist dictatorship....
52
Is he going to pardon Tim McVeigh posthumously?
28
The Trump administration supports arson if it will score some cheap political points.
63
This is such a strange thing. I hate to see old men in jail, even if they think they are defending a Wild West territory against bad foreigners. Get this straight, fellow citizens— people like Trump are not defending your freedom, they are defending the freedom of billionaires to rape and pillage the land we all share in common. What gives you the right to claim dominion? By all means pardon the aged nincompoops, but do not praise their ignorance, violence and basic lack of patriotism.
25
Red meat for the base.
39
The truth about the Hammonds and their lawbreaking, threats and arson events can be found on Wikipedia. Somebody tell Sarah before she misspeaks.
24
It's another "dog whistle" to Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. IMHO. Horrible!
17
Leftist Activists blocked private land owned by the Dakota Access Pipeline. Protesters blocked the highway for months. 48 million pounds of trash had to be hauled away at government (taxpayer) expense. Obama was hands off. No liberal outrage just applause for the lawbreaking protesters. Pretty funny to read the outrage du jour.
4
You're seriously equating littering to arson?
13
We are no longer a country of laws. We are now ruled by ignorant fools. VOTE DEMOCRATIC
50
The pardon is a part of the buildup against Democratic Governor Kate Brown of Oregon, up for re-election this year.
Kate Brown was the one who called Loretta Lynch and the Obama FBI in on the Malheur occupation, and the Oregon State Patrol, under FBI command, killed LaVoy Finicum in January 2016.
Kate Brown now faces a civil suit for wrongful death by the Finicum widow, coming up at the same time as the trial of one of several FBI agents who tampered with the evidence at the shooting scene.
It is all going to hit the news in the upcoming election campaign, and the charge of accomplice to police assassination is going to dog Kate Brown forever. She has ultraiberal Portland but not much else in Oregon.
9
Finicum, you mean the guy who fled from federal officers, crashed his vehicle, and then was shot reaching into his jacket for a handgun after saying he was willing to die? Yeah, what a wrongful death
7
Right wing terrorists get pardons. If these arsonists were Muslim, Trump would support the death penalty.
36
These welfare ranchers, not content to steal money from the rest of us and ruin our public lands, commit acts of terrorism and their fellow criminal in the white house aids and abets them. He'd pardon Ted Bundy, let alone Ammon Bundy.
101
I have run out of adjectives for disgust.
53
Why would a lawless president see any lawlessness in their actions. He just sees birds of a feather.
21
So much for the Retrumplicans and law and order.
14
The ranchers’ are part of a group of people who want to take and use public lands free of any obligations as if it were outside the reach of any laws. They live in wide open spaces where they can do pretty much anything outside of any witnesses. They consider the wide open spaces as a tacit license to behave with impunity for any consequences of their behaviors. As a nation we have great good interests in managing the public lands for everyone. These characters are opposed to such things.
19
You do not take the law into your own hands.
Trump is sending a message that it is acceptable to violate the law or a court order if Trump disagrees with law or court order.
Same thing with Arpaio.
113
Black men would have been shot on sight for what the Hammonds and Bundys did. Trump's use of executive pardons badly undermines the rule of law. Another reason that Trump should be impeached.
85
Trump's base is gradually shrinking to a core group of backwoods ignoramuses. They are not enough to win an election, they are irredeemably, joyfully obtuse, and should best be ignored. If the Democrats had an economic agenda, one that addressed heathcare, student loan debt, the effects of automation and wage inequality, they might actually pick up some votes from the supporters Trump has shed. However, it is painfully clear by now that discussing the plight of the working class is the ONE thing that Democratic mega-donors, just like their GOP brethren, do not want discussed.
13
A recent study showed that economic conditions were not the primary reason people voted for tRump.
How long before Trump and Huckabee Sanders are claiming the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter was just a car backfiring?
29
The idea that trump is siding with ranchers is laughable. He is siding, as he has done with all his descion since taking office with reversing anything and everything that President Obama had acopmplishrd. The idea that a black man created any good in this country can not and will not stand under a trump administration. Barack Obama brought the country out of the Great Recession has given us a steady increase in the economy and a stable footing in the world. But that can not and will not stand under the administration of trump. That is why we see simple pardons or ranchers to the denile of health care for all because it was created by a black man. Until we all realize this fact we will continue to chase our tails on stories like this.
22
Trump and his supporters do not support the rule of law, the cornerstone of American democracy.
76
We taxpayers fund huge subsidies for these ranchers. The government allows them to run up huge unpaid tax bills and point loaded weapons at federal agents, with no repurcusions. Now, after their ilk occupied federal land and violently held it, Trump pardons their martyrs, sending the message that they're free to take matters into their own weapon-clad hands. Every federal employee is at risk of harm now: Anti-government extremists have been given the green light.
192
These ranchers get a pardon for starting wildfires on federal property? This administration doesn't want to protect the environment but destroy it without cause. Wildfires are not a hoax. They kill people, destroy homesteads and destroy the wildlife that a responsible administration would do everything to prevent from happening.
These undeserved pardons were issued as another rebuff of his predecessor, and what his right wing Supreme Court cannot fix in the highest court in the land the president will wave his magic pardon wand and forgive the sins of "very fine people". How would the president feel if the Hammonds committed arson on his Mar-a-Lago estate?
49
Trump probably didn't even care if they were guilty or not, he just like's to use that pen and give pardons out left and right.
Which is why Paul Manafort wants to be tried and sentenced ASAP so that his buddy can give him a pardon.
There's nothing like having the fox guard the hen house.
13
Impeach. Rule of Law. Save America from Trump. God bless America.
16
Trump is giving aid and comfort to the anti-government militia movement in anticipation of indictments. This is bad and it's going to get worse.
150
Why does everyone question his behavior !
His only interest is in Creating Chaos & Money !!!
15
So white of Trump to pardon these cowboys. I wonder how many votes this one pardon is worth to Trump and Republicans?
32
If you're white and American (and probably Christian too), you're never a terrorist.
That's what these pardons mean.
18
Babies in jail. Clemency for lawless fascists. This is America now, and let's stop pretending otherwise.
178
This pardon serves as a two-fer for Trump. Not only does he get to play to his fundamentalist base, he continues to attempt to dismantle everything done under the Obama administration. An utter disgrace.
98
Open season on public land, folks. Move in, trash it, do anything you want. Party of Law and Order, indeed. Rs forfeit any moral high ground. Please, America, hand them the defeats they deserve until they come to their senses.
144
trump wants the votes. Fed lands are not a dumping ground for squatters on US lands. trump uses laws the way he lies. VOTE!
23
Is this fool of a president and his administration ever on the correct side of any issue?
79
Come on, be serious.
5
He probably spends his nights searching for obscure things Obama did so that he can undo them.
17
Easy question to answer: No.
15
Curious hierarchy of values on the part of the Creamsicle Mussolini. Take over/occupy federal lands with weapons and threaten/attack law enforcement, no problem. Take a knee during the national anthem, BIG problem.
113
And rightly so Josh G, the president is lawless and encourages lawlessness.
One disgusting thing after another.
22
Trump deals exclusively in political extremism, so no surprise here.
40
As a taxpayer who votes for folks on both sides of the aisle -- This is bad.
What happened to the rule of law?
Where is the GOP when the taxpayer and the future suffers the loss of some ranching expense.
And I grew up on the farm and understand subsidies, but free grazing, because you happen to live close to public land is much to far.
We can go back and have a discussion and change range rights via legislation, but arson, really? (read the history -they knew they what crime they committed).
This is pardon abuse IMHO.
Same thing I said about the pardon to Mr. Rich by Clinton.
108
Pardoning people engaging in armed conflict with law enforcement? The President is clearly trying to adjust the bar downwards for pardoning himself someday.
205
These cattle ranchers get sweetheart deals to use public land for their hobby, and their cattle do terrible damage to the ecosystem. The government is also killing wild animals in the West by the thousands on behalf of these phony cowboys. Enough already with their complaining and persecution complex.
220
Dotard trump pardoned those cowboys who took over a National Monument. As a former Director of the Bureau of Land Management, I believe every public servant in the employment of Federal Land Management agencies just had a target painted on their backs by trump. POTUS is guilty of reckless endangerment. This kind of Presidential malfeasance cannot be tolerated much longer. Not only are these welfare ranchers getting incredible subsidies, they are being empowered to use violence against our land managers. Appalling.
554
Mr Baca reads this right. What about this guy and his cohort preventing public access and trashing native American sacred sites? Only Trump's money is sacred to him. Appalling that the religious right has been so naive to support him. And now, what about Russia and the Clifford pay offs?
9
While I agree with your sentiment, Trump did not pardon the cowboys that took over a national monument. Those yahoos were acquitted by a jury. Had they been convicted, he probably would have pardoned them however.
2
Absolutely agree. Where to begin? Workers were threatened by an influx of angry, gun-toting militants and were unable to do their jobs. The county had to foot the bill for extra police and overtime. Rare and sacred Indian artifacts were destroyed Buildings were left trashed. Local citizens had to worry about how long their lives would be disrupted, when could they count on feeling safe in their own homes, get back to a normal life. Taxpayers had to cover the costs of additional law enforcement and foot the bill for trial and jail time.
1
Shameless and ignorant pandering to His base. These longtime Moochers caused real damage, to property that belongs to ALL of us. Once again, white males pardoned. Black or Brown, not so much. No, no racism with this Regime. Not at all.
241
You talk about racism... yet show your ignorance.. Trump has pardoned black people previously.. so, why make stuff up?
2
I am aware of Jack Johnson, could you tell us the other black people Trump has pardoned?
1
Volourn: Which black people has he pardoned? Can you name three as well as the crimes for which they were pardoned?
1
Despicable. It's stuff like this that people all over the world look to when they ask 'is the government of the US legitimate? Or can you defy legal authority just by sucking up to some petty tinpot dictator?'
For example, investors look at this. If the base voters wanted to commit national suicide rather than share with people of color, they've chose a pretty good way to do it. But why drag us along on their bullet train into the abyss?
55
What the Hammonds did was illegal. Not sure why Trump isn't rounding up their children and putting them in cages.
342
they are white
10
Their skin is white.
2
The facts of the case do not support the White House alibi that sought to justify pardoning those two violent, dangerous, criminals. In fact, Sanders outright lied about the case during the press conference. The facts and evidence and witness testimony served to indict, successfully prosecute, and imprison two violent, dangerous, repeat arsonists who sought to cover up their crimes and threatened others with revenge and extortion if they testified against them. Suffice it to say that they are the worst of the worst and no decent president would even think of pardoning them. Unfortunately we have a president who is at least as bad as they are and probably a whole lot worse. And I put Oregon's elected representative, Greg Walden, in the same category as others in Trump's world who cater to lawlessness and violence.
297
Thank you Alabama democrat! Why did the facts of this case come out in a comment instead of the NYTimes story? The Times is doing a great job of holding this administration's feet to the fire, but this particular article looks like a case of "press release journalism."
1
Totally disgusting who Trump is pardoning!
31
First Joe Arpaio and now the Hammonds. There seems to be a pattern developing-and it's a horrible one.
302
Why don't the republicans speak up?
13
This land is my land, this land is my land...
Terry Nichols next?
40
Trump is all for law and order when it comes to immigrants. Domestic terrorists? Not so much.
406
Disgusting abuse of power.
Please, in November, VOTE
266
“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
Wildfires don’t “leak” Sarah, they spread and leap uncontrollably and they endanger people’s lives, especially in the west. This wasn’t some controlled burn gone awry either. Evidence presented at the trial indicate that the Hammonds deliberately set fires to hide evidence of illegal poaching of out-of-season deer from game wardens. It was pure arson, and they did it more than once.
649
As if you expected Sarah Huckabee Sanders to tell the truth about what happened?
7
And they set illegal backfires (fires meant to contain wildfires) at night downslope from firefighters without warning those firefighters, meaning those firefighters could have been caught between fires. and they threatened public officials over the course of some fifteen years.
"...pardoned a pair of Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving out sentences for arson on federal land..."
Just to stick it to Obama, Trump is giving the green light for more of this behavior. He really delights in creating chaos.
I still cannot believe this man is somehow our president.
431
Trump is pandering to his base very effectively ahead of the November elections.
The Democrats need to figure out a way to counter this. Sorry to say, by focusing on protecting illegal migrants is not the way to do it. It may be humane, yes, of course--but it's not a winning strategy for November.
81
But the numbers of his base are smaller than the numbers of those who dislike him.The real trick is getting them out to vote.
2
Trump feels immune from the consequences of criminal behaviors so he does not take it seriously. These characters want to think that they can take and use public lands because they want to do so. There is no talking to people like this, they must see that they will not be allowed to ignore law and civil behavior. People like this don’t just predate on public property, they predate upon any unable to stop them. Pardoning them encourages similarly inclined people to ignore the laws and respect for anyone unable to stop them with force.
135
So does that mean that I can squat on a corner of Yellowstone and aim rifles at any National Park employee that dares to tell me to leave? If it, why not, isn’t this what’s these white Christian men, such as Cliven Bundy done? What’s the difference? I’m not white, male or Christian. Only in this country can unarmed black men and boys, get shot by cops and wanna be cops, when all they were carrying were toy pistols or skittles.Yet armed men, who takeover my taxpayer owned land, and set fires, get pardoned by this madman, otherwise known as the current US president.
285
Only too true, Miriam. It has in fact already become more dangerous for National Park Service employees and other government employees in the west, they're targets of "survivalists," gun nuts, and the like. I never thought I'd be worried about the safety of FBI and ATF agents, but here we are. Millions of people voted for this criminal in the white house, and a lot of them would do it again. That's what we're up against. In the short term, we're having to fight voter suppression and gerrymandering just to have an almost level playing field in the fall.
14
You appear to have the American Dream, as seen by the current government, down pat.
1
Unless Trump read the trial transcripts and judicial opinions — and we know he can’t read — then he is issuing one more pardon to play to his rabid base and not on the merits of the case or in accordance with established pardon procedures. This whole fiasco started because Cliven Bundy refused to pay millions he owed in grazing fees for his cattle on public land. Then self-styled militia showed up and aimed assault rifles at federal officers, who found themselves badly outgunned. If the sentence was viewed as excessive, it could simply have been commuted to time served without pardoning the underlying criminal offense for which they were convicted at trial.
34
Sorry, you are wrong. The case against Cliven Bundy for refusing to pay over $1 million he owed for federal grazing fees in Nevada is only tangentially related to the Hammonds' conviction in Oregon.
The Hammonds poached game and committed arson on federal land in Malheur. That's what a jury of their peers convicted them of doing.
Bundys' sons then gathered up their posse of armed idiots to occupy the Malheur ranger station and to terrorize the surrounding community - in supposed 'solidarity' with the Hammonds, whom they (mis)characterized as 'political prisoners' and 'martyrs to the cause of freedom.'
Unfortunately, you need to get your program and fill out the scorecard to keep all the looney toon players sorted out.
8
What? You mean Sarah Sanders lied? I don't believe it.
5
They break several laws for their own benefit, and then scream bloody murder when brown people try to come here without papers because it's "illegal."
4