Prosecutors got more bad news in their failed attempt to prosecute Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, and Ryan Payne for their role in an armed standoff with federal agents in Nevada back in 2014. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed all the charges against the men after it was revealed the government withheld troves of evidence that could have benefited the defense. In her ruling, she said that withholding the evidence was "flagrant prosecutorial misconduct" and even barred the prosecutors from retrying the case in the future.
The four men faced multiple felony charges, including threatening a federal officer, carrying and using a firearm and engaging in conspiracy, for their involvement in riling up supporters who came to protest the government's attempt to confiscate cattle from the Bundy's ranch.
The standoff resulted from a decades long battle between Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over unpaid grazing fees. After the BLM said they planned to impound Bundy's cattle, hundreds of armed supporters showed up in Nevada to support Bundy. The tense standoff ended peacefully with the BLM dropping tha plans to round up Bundy's livestock.
That peaceful ending did not stop the government from trying to prosecute Bundy and those involved in the tense stand-off. The government was ultimately done in when prosecutors failed to turn over FBI data that could have bolstered the Bundy's defense which claimed they were armed in self defense.
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