LAS VEGAS — A federal judge Tuesday delayed opening statements in the trial of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy after defense allegations that there may be video related to the 2014 standoff at his Bunkerville ranch that the government failed to turn over.
U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro pushed opening statements back to Nov. 14 to give prosecutors time to track down the surveillance footage — though she agreed it was unclear whether the equipment had, in fact, recorded anything at all.
It was yet another twist in a trial that has captivated Americans who view the Bundy trial as a fight against federal government overreach on public lands and infringement on the right to protest.
Cliven Bundy, 71, is on trial with his sons Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy — along with cohort Ryan Payne — on a litany of federal felony charges including conspiracy in trying to stop the federal government from seizing cattle grazing on public land, carrying and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and threatening a federal officer.
Those charges stem from the 2014 standoff with federal agents who had arrived at Bundy’s Bunkerville ranch to seize cattle that had been illegally grazing on U.S. Bureau of Land Management Land for free.
That confrontation included armed Bundy supporters taking positions on freeway overpasses and hunkered down in washes to stop federal agents. No shots were fired, though federal agents have said they feared for their lives before they ultimately retreated.
The surveillance footage raised by defense attorneys and Ryan Bundy — who is acting in his own defense — was brought up during a hearing last week when a witness testified that she saw video feeds from a camera streaming onto a monitor during four days of the standoff.
But acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre said nothing had been recorded, so there was nothing to hand over to Bundy’s defense lawyers. Navarro, however, said “you don’t set up surveillance cameras for nothing” as she gave prosecutors time to investigate if anything had been recorded.
Ammon Bundy’s lawyer, Morgan Philpot, scoffed at the government’s characterization that seeking the surveillance footage was a “fantastical fishing expedition.”