http://www.rgj.com/story/news/crime/2017/02/15/blm-agent-says-bundy-standoff-gunman-aimed/97964138/

LAS VEGAS - A federal agent testified Wednesday that he saw a “sniper” behind a concrete barrier on a freeway overpass pointing a military-style weapon at him while a crowd of protesters in a dry river bed called for the government to release Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle in April 2014.

Bureau of Land Management Special Agent Michael Johnson told a U.S. District Court jury hearing a third day of evidence in Las Vegas that he’ll never forget the feeling of fear, and that that he “absolutely” felt his life was in danger.

“There was a man with binoculars right next to him. He would periodically pop up,” Johnson said, adding that he also saw the man he termed a “spotter” using a monocular range-finder to judge the distance between them.

Johnson testified he took cover for more than an hour behind a portable generator trailer, and never raised his handgun or AR-15 rifle at the overpass or at unarmed men, women and children in the wash below.

On Tuesday, another bureau agent, Rand Stover, testified for the prosecution that he too felt his life was threatened.

Under questioning by defendant Todd Engel, who is serving as his own lawyer, Johnson said Wednesday he saw other federal agents with weapons pointed toward protesters.

Engel tried to establish a timeline suggesting government officials were first to draw weapons.

No shots were fired during the tense standoff, and the cattle were eventually released.

Six defendants who prosecutors say wielded weapons are now standing trial on charges including conspiracy, firearm offenses and assault on a federal officer that could get them more than 100 years in federal prison.

Bundy and sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy are due to stand trial with two other men as a second group, after the first trial is over.

Cue 1 minute.

In Nevada pointing any firearm, whether loaded or not, at or towards a human being is prohibited by law. These dickwads should be prosecuted.

Federal law enforcement at or near the same location were seen and photographed doing exactly the same thing. I was very disappointed that our County Sheriff, who had jurisdiction, did not act against the Federal officers and send a strong message to the BLM and all other federal agencies.


mike r

what they didn't have a chance to shoot a women thru a door?

Those cattle were taken and quite a few killed, without due process. They were not released, they were taken back.
Depriving a man of property and livelyhood, requires court action. (Which didn't happen.)
Bundy's son was tazored twice, while trying to talk with them. I followed the live broadcasts, the live feeds, and the news. The news kept changing.
The Bundy's were arrogant did willfully break the law, by doing a backburn on thier own land (violating a "no burn" order, it got away from them, and burned onto federal land. They had other options, but chose the fastest and easiest method.
The Bundy's did do wrong, but the BLM did much worse.
Watch the recorded live feeds if you can find them. The BLM had guns pointed alot.
As for the sniper....he was mugging for a camera most of the time. I would say the cameraman gave him away, not the spotter. He had a narrow gap between two concrete barriers, IIRC, and prone on the bridge. Very little to see at all.
Drain the swamp, dismantle the BLM swat team. It serves no good purpose.

No. the Hammonds were the fire bugs. the Bundys were the freeloaders...

It’s very simple. Harry Reid used federal violence to take people’s land in his state so he could package it and re-sell it to the Chinese for personal gain.

You don't really seem to know anything about the case if you think what you stated above is true.

The news didn't keep changing.
You just don't understand it at all.

Freeloading welfare mormons. Lots of otherwise good folks even on here got caught up defending the shcitbirds.

Protecting the county citizens from federal government over reach is one of the main duties of a Sheriff.

There was a family of hill people years ago who got the treatment.


Didn't pay their bills.



Feds and the banker came in, bulldozed the house into the basement and burned it.

Protecting citizens from millions of dollars worth of theft and freeloading should be the duty of law enforcement at any level.

The Bundy's literally stole millions in grazing fees from the taxpayers, and then pitched a bitch when called on to pay.

They are no different and no better than Laquesha and welfare fraud in the inner city, and both ought to be treated just as harshly.

Too bad that sniper didn't pull the trigger a few times. Feds have killed enough innocent Americans in my lifetime {Ruby Ridge, Waco}. They got it comin'.

Yep.

No, the news kept changing. That is a fact. On another site, there is a timeline thread, the news articles were preserved as they were first presented, as well as the changes. There was quite a bit of rumor, speculation passed off as news.
online news articles were Rewritten, with no obvious signs of editing or corrections made. However, before and after screenshot show the changes.

I could very easily Supply links to the thread and doctored articles,and much more. I know where to find it. But why make it easy for someone with so low of an opinion of me?
Do your own research.
I've had information overload on this subject, and I'm not going down that rabbit hole again. (it makes me feel dirty)
Think what you want, I'm done here.

All these guys were of course carefully vetted beforehand....







If I was a BLM guy at the scene, I would have been worried about getting shot too. Doubly so if it was my son/father/brother/spouse putting hisself in harm's way out there.

I ain't feeling for the Bundy's a whole lot here.

And anyone who is lamenting the fact nobody got shot is pathetic, and an embarrassment to the 'Fire.

Birdwatcher

You are correct, I had that event assigned to the wrong family. My apologies for that misstep, but it was the wrong chapter from the same book.
As a law and order guy, it irritates me, that there is no side to root FOR. In many ways, I find Clive Bundy's the least criminal side.
With the mea cupa, i'm done here.

If the Bundy's lost a few head of cattle, take it off the $1M+ in grazing fees that they owe the BLM. This kind of crap would never get out of hand if the Feds would just enforce the law in a timely manner, rather than letting it go on until it was out of control. Bundy should go to prison and have his assets seized and sold within the scope of the law.

Maybe they were just pointing at bedrock.

Did not see any whining in the OP. Mostly just reporting.

That Nev affair went on for way too many years. If Bundy senior does 5 years in the pen, it will have penciled out on his end.

Anarchy sure is fun when it's in someone else's back yard.

I believe a big part of the whole episode started with the BLM NOT renewing licenses, and so they wouldn't accept Bundy's money.

There were endangered tortoises to protect. The cattle had to go.

BS Grazing fees are no million dollars. I'll bet more than 3/4s of that is interest and penalties.

The BLM isn't required to renew grazing leases. Just 'cause you one now, doesn't mean you get to keep it, but I'd bet that the vast majority are rolled over without an problems.

Unless Dingy Harry has a plan for the land?

Maybe so, but they are still his responsibility and stem directly from his actions. Cliven Bundy chose not to pay BLM grazing fees since 1993. That is over 20 year worth of accrued fees, plus penalties and interest. Bundy did the crime and I hope that the DOJ will vigorously pursue litigation against violators and seek stiff penalties for those who are convicted.

Yet Al Sharpton runs around free owing a huge sum in unpaid taxes.

I liked the video of that guy's fat ass riding around on a horse with the American flag.

As if we're all supposed to give a fugk about his lease problems.




Dave

Of course you are right, and there is nobody to cheer for in this specific case. Bundy was a nut, but he was faced with either fighting for their family livelihood (they'd been leasing that land since before I was born) or being put out of business by bureacrats. We don't have much that's similar in Nebraska, but that ranch depended on that lease.

BLM has a long history of screwing ranchers/miners/outdoorsmen, much of it due to specific individual managers. Which is why I'm greatly in favor of those lands staying under federal ownership, but being managed by the states. States will still screw up, but they are far more answerable to the people than anonymous federal bureacrats that live thousands of miles away.

Loggers included; but this time it wasn't the endangered spotted owl, but a turtle.

Everything can be done in the right way.

If you don't like getting pushed off, then fight it through legal channels.

The rule of law works both ways.

That means executing the law through due process too.

There was no due process in seizing and killing many cattle, and destruction of water wells on private property, as well as working pens.

Cordoning off "First Amendment Zones" is an unconstitutional response by government as well.

As were assaults on the elderly woman that was a cancer patient that posed no physical threat.

This whole thing was more about government overreach that ALL of us should be concerned about.

Bundy's Hill wasn't mine to die on, but people ought to pay attention to flagrant violations by a Goliath government that might cause any of us to bow our necks and fight with whatever we have at hand.

Good thing he's got all those picatinny rails, just in case...

"Public" land...means just that, and all "public" interests are controlled by representatives elected for that purpose. Federal land is controlled by the Federal Government. You gotta take the bad with the good.

You reckon the government snipers had picatinny rails too?

Can't whip up much empathy for the Bundys. You sign the lease you send the rent check in on time or expected to get the boot whether it's a two room cold water flat or grazing land. I also seem to notice there are always a lot of women and children around these big showdowns. Is it the LE personnel bringing their families with them on bring your family to work day or what?

That must be it.

I find Sloth to be the most inspiring.

https://youtu.be/uPBpN0rqcLs

Absolute Truth.

Maybe there's plenty of guilt to go around, but personally I would like to see the feds get their wings clipped. They're gettin waaaaay too big for their britches.

The bundys are thieves, and nobody needed to die.

You can't supply links that support what you claimed because it's all wrong.

You might as well be "done" since you don't have your facts straight.

Yes. Amazing how much misinformation one can squeeze into less than a page.

Yep.

Like them just waking up one day and deciding to not pay grazing fees.

That's the biggest fake news story that many swallowed hook, line and sinker.

Whether they decided one morning or one evening or while in the mormon synagogue one morning while sacrificing babies is a moot point. That "hook" if indeed there is one is barbless. However, standing them up as some kind of rallying point to point to .gov overreach is a giant rusty treble hook that more than one or 2 posters on here has stepped on and embedded in their heels.

The fact is that the government revoked their lease. Told them to get the cattle off of the bulk of their lease and designated it as tortuous habitat.

They refused. Kept using the land, and payment was offered to the state instead. That was refused.

Like I said, it wasn't my hill to die on, and I would have done things differently, but when your back is against the wall, people do all sorts of things.

Nothing to argue about there, especially the tortuous habitat.

It just pizzes me off so see them held up as some kind of folk hero. Far far far from it.

And openly advocating for shooting the BLM agents on scene from a computer screen anonymously is cowardly and kgunty. And NO I know you did not put that forward, though others have and to my disappointment those statements have basically been allowed to stand.

Birdy of all people was the one to condemn the statements. Damn I hate agreeing with him.

BGG, no one takes Blackheart or his ilk seriously, all mouth no muscle. I do think that you and Birdie should be BFF.


mike r