Ammon Bundy: Guns allowed Oregon refuge occupiers to express First Amendment rights
Source: Oregonian
After Ammon Bundy spent three days testifying about why he occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, a prosecutor Thursday afternoon fired rapid questions at him during a cross-examination that lasted just under 15 minutes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight started out, "You are the leader'' of the occupation, right?
"No,'' Bundy said.
"Isn't it true you testified you're 'sort of the leader,''' Knight asked, noting that hours earlier Bundy had told jurors that he gave dozens and dozens of press conferences at the refuge and described in detail all of his followers.
"Is it your testimony today you were not the leader?'' Knight continued.
Bundy told Knight he wanted to clarify "what you're wanting me to say."
"I teach correct principles and let them govern themselves,'' Bundy said.
And so the cross-examination went, with the prosecutor highlighting key testimony that Bundy offered earlier in his federal conspiracy trial that seemed to bolster the government's case against him:
There was a "unified purpose'' to the occupation, guns played a role in helping carry out the refuge takeover, that Bundy knew federal employees worked at the site and Bundy and others used parts of the refuge as their own.
Knight's quick questions in a combative tone were striking in contrast to the soft-spoken questions that Bundy's lawyer Marcus Mumford asked during about 10 hours of direct examination.
Bundy is one of seven defendants charged with preventing employees from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from doing their work through intimidation, threats or force during the 41-day occupation of the eastern Oregon bird sanctuary last winter.
Read more: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/10/prosecutors_brief_cross-examin.html#incart_most-commented_art_article
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