Prosecutorial Misconduct Will Feed Right-Wing Extremism
I’ve written many times about the prevalence of prosecutorial misconduct and police lying. It is a massive problem that not only puts away innocent people who go to trial but also encourages the innocent accused to actually plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. But you would think that prosecutors in high profile cases would be especially wary of engaging in business as usual, due to the increased scrutiny. That apparently did not occur to those prosecuting Cliven Bundy and his crew involved in the standoff over the government’s attempt to round up the cattle that the Bundys had not paid grazing fees for in over two decades.
Yesterday, the judge called a mistrial based on the fact that the prosecution had withheld documents that would have helped the defense in their fight against conspiracy and assault charges. The actions of the prosecution were so egregious that the judge is considering ruling a mistrial with prejudice, meaning the case could not be tried again.
Prosecutors withheld and mischaracterized documents that outlined the use of an FBI surveillance camera and the presence of Bureau of Land Management snipers outside the Bundy compound. One of the elements of the indictment against the Bundys was that they gathered supporters by falsely claiming there were snipers surrounding the ranch. That claim was provably not false and prosecutors knew it. In addition, prosecutors initially denied the existence of the surveillance camera and then described it incidental to the Bundy dispute. That also was provably false and the prosecutors knew it. In addition, other documentation showed that no endangered tortoises had been injured by the Bundy cattle, which was the ostensible reason for the cattle roundup to begin with.
The most distressing part of this case is that this will be the third time that the Bundy crew has escaped justice in clear violations of the law. And it shows the power of essentially a well-armed private militia can actually intimidate federal law enforcement authorities these days. In 2014, federal rangers trying to enforce a court-ordered impoundment of Bundy cattle retreated in the face of a well-armed Bundy group rather than provoke a potentially violent confrontation. The Bundys subsequently went on to federal land and illegally seized the Malheur wildlife refuge. The resulting standoff resulted in the death of one of the Bundy supporters and a surprising acquittal for the Bundy clan. This mistrial results in the third failure to bring the Bundys to account.
As two protesters opposed to the Bundys worried, there is now a concern that this result will provide a further boost to “militant participation in a broader move to seize public lands and hand them over to states.” In actuality, the hand-over will be to private interests and not really the state.
Two endemic features of our society have led us to this place – prosecutorial misconduct and the gun culture. The right wing will use this case as yet another example of the bias of the FBI in their attempt to shut down the Mueller investigation. And right wing militias will be encouraged that a well-armed group can literally fend off the federal government for years. A sad case all around.
