03/24/2018 / By JD Heyes
Fresh off a legal victory after being targeted by a weaponized Bureau of Land Management and corrupt federal and state prosecutors in Nevada, rancher Ryan Bundy has announced he will run for governor of his state.
In an interview with North West Liberty News, Bundy discussed a range of issues, including how he believes state officials are more guilty of failing to protect the constitutional rights of residents than the federal government is in violating those rights.
You may recall that Ryan, along with his father Cliven Bundy, brother Ammon Bundy, and others, were engaged in a tense standoff with federal agents, local police and heavily-armed BLM agents near their southwest Nevada ranch in 2014.
That said, tensions between the Bundy operation and the federal government began long before that.
In 1990, in an effort to protect the desert tortoise, the federal government moved to limit grazing rights on federal land in Nevada, encompassing ground that Bundy had utilized for decades.
In 1993 he refused to renew his grazing rights, claiming the BLM and the federal government had no sovereignty over the state of Nevada.
Federal courts subsequently sided with the government. However, for the next 20 years, Bundy and government agencies butted heads, during which time he racked up $1 million in owed grazing fees and fines. The disagreement came to a head in 2014 when heavily-armed BLM agents moved in to confiscate Bundy’s cattle grazing on government property. A stand-off ensued as scores of armed civilians showed up to counter BLM agents and local authorities.
Eventually, authorities stood down, fearing the public’s safety, and pledged to return Bundy’s cattle. Bundy continued to graze his cattle, and he and sons Ammon and Ryan were eventually arrested.
They were charged with numerous felonies, including conspiracy, assault on a federal officer and using a firearm in a violent crime, and faced many years in prison.
The case began in late October 2017. However, within two months it completely fell apart; U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial in December after discovering that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence from the Bundy’s legal team — a violation of the Brady rule, named after a landmark 1963 Supreme Court case which found that evidence withheld from a defendant is tantamount to a violation of the right to due process. (Related: Unsealed court docs show MASSIVE corruption in Bundy case.)
In the interview with North West Liberty News, Ryan Bundy said he has represented himself in numerous court cases over the past several years, never losing a case without having ever gone to law school. He has, instead, spent a great deal of time over the years studying the Constitution. And he said that many have helped him along, especially his father.
As to what is motivating him to run for governor, he says he doesn’t believe anyone else who is running or considering a run for the office will really work to protect ordinary Nevadans.
“I think about all of those who supported us” through the various trials and tribulations his family has endured but who themselves were forced by scheming government agents and federal prosecutors to plead guilty to various crimes of which they are innocent, Bundy said.
“Now these men are not guilty of crimes. And yet the government uses tactics and means which…convict a lot of men that are not guilty of crimes,” he added. “And so, I am concerned about these men.”
Bundy also voiced his support for public schools to once again be focused on teaching the U.S. Constitution — especially the Bill of Rights (which is what we used to call “Civics” class) — as well as allowing students to take part in proper firearms training if they wanted.
Listen to the full interview here.
J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.
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Tagged Under: Bundy ranch, Constitution, governor, Liberty, Nevada, people’s rights, race, Ryan Bundy