Federal prosecutors in Oregon have dismissed charges against self-described independent broadcaster Peter Santilli, who documented the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon, on his YouTube channel and was accused by prosecutors of being part of the protest group.
Santilli had been charged with being an active player in the takeover to protest allegations of federal overreach by the Bureau of Land Management.
The judge earlier had limited what evidence would be presented against Santilli.
The protesters wanted the federal government to surrender its control over the land, and they wanted father-son ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond released from prison, where they were serving time for a fire they started on federal grazing land.
The Rutherford Institute had filed a brief in support of Santilli’s presence as a journalist.
“The FBI’s prosecution of this radio shock jock has been consistent with the government’s ongoing attempts to intimidate members of the press who portray the government in a less than favorable light,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of the institute.
“This is not a new tactic. During the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, numerous journalists were arrested while covering the regions’ civil unrest and the conditions that spawned that unrest. These attempts to muzzle the press were clearly concerted, top-down efforts to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of the public and the press,” he said.
“Not only does this tactic silence individual journalists, but it has a chilling effect on the press as a whole, signaling that they will become the target of the government if they report on these events with a perspective that casts the government in a bad light.”
Rutherford said prosecutors cited a lack of evidence in asking the judge to dismiss counts against Santilli. Their statements came after the judge excluded “any evidence of Santilli’s other conduct and statements to counter-protesters and media in the government’s case-in-chief because it is not directly relevant to the alleged conspiracy to impede federal officers by force, intimidation, or threat.”
Rutherford said the dismissal of charges came on the evening before his trial. Rutherford officials had advised Santilli’s court-appointed attorney, Thomas Coan, on the First Amendment protections for him.
It was in January when a group of armed activists staged an act of civil disobedience by occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon.
Santilli — who previously had covered the April 2014 standoff at the Bundy ranch in Nevada, which featured many of the same players — was there.
“Santilli was vocal about his commitment to exercising his First Amendment rights in a nonviolent, peaceful fashion and the need for others to do so as well,” the institute said. “When asked to clarify his role in relation to the occupation, Santilli declared, ‘My role is the same here that it was at the Bundy ranch. To talk about the constitutional implications of what is going on here. The Constitution cannot be negotiated.'”
Santilli also said: “I’m not armed. I am armed with my mouth. I’m armed with my live stream. I’m armed with a coalition of like-minded individuals who sit at home and on YouTube watch this.”
The order dismissing the counts, however, noted Santilli also was facing prosecution for the April 2014 Nevada ranch standoff, and he was to remain in custody to be moved to that state.
WND reported Ammon Bundy and others were taken into FBI custody near the site of their Oregon standoff.
The end of the protest came when two protesters, LaVoy Finicum and Ryan Bundy, Ammon’s brother, were shot during an altercation with police near the refuge.
Finicum was killed.
U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan had sentenced the Hammonds to a one-year prison sentence in 2012 for fires they caused that spilled over into acreage, also leased by the Hammond Ranch. In 2014, however, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that now-retired judge illegally sentenced the Hammonds to terms below the five-year minimum. The Hammonds were ordered back to prison, despite serving time and paying $400,000 in damages to the government.
