Jury of 12 plus four alternates selected for second Oregon standoff trial (AG SESSIONS ROLE?)

OregonLive ^ | 2/15/2017 | Maxine Bernstein

[Nextrush]

A jury of seven women and five men, plus four alternates, will return to court next week for opening statements...

Opening statements in the trial, expected to last up to four week, will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Jason Patrick, Duane Ehmer, Jake Ryan and Darryl Thorn are charged with conspiring to impede federal employees from doing their work at the refuge through intimidation, threats or force. Patrick, Ryan and Thorn also face weapons charges, and Ehmer and Ryan are accused of digging trenches on government property with a refuge excavator.

The jurors will return verdicts on those felony charges, the judge will issue verdicts on misdemeanor charges, including trespass and tampering with vehicles or equipment........

In other developments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow told the judge proseuctors are asking U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for approval to subpoena former Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter John Sepulvado, now working in the San Francisco area, to offer a radio interview clip from his interview in early January 2016 with Ryan Bundy.

Prosecution didn't play the interview for jurors in the first trial after defense attorneys balked.....

Defense lawyers are opposed to the use of the audio at trial. "We hear of this five days before we start trial,: said Jesse Merrithew, Ryan's defense lawyer. He also said he found timing questionable, wondering if prosecutors waited to request a subpoena of a reporter from Sessions, instead of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch......

[Nextrush]

The second trial of Oregon Standoff protest defendants will be in full swing on Tuesday after a jury was selected.

This trial is a more rigged process, after the acquittals of the protest "leaders" last fall.

There will the same felony charges for the four defendants to be decided by a jury.

But misdemeanor charges have been tacked on with the judge saying she will decide the verdicts, not a jury.

Supporters of the defendants like John Lamb and Kelli Stewart will be releasing video reports from Portland during the trial.

Also, there is this issue of the reporters interview with Ryan Bundy, who's expected to testify along with his brother Ammon, on behalf of the defense.

The federal prosecutors are going up the chain of command to the new Attorney General Jeff Sessions to get permission for subpoenaing the reporter.

Are the Obama prosecutors trying to bait the Trump AG to get involved in forcing the reporter to testify at the trial????

It just reminds us that there's new management in Washington and our hopes that the management would shut down the prosecution of these people and free prisoners from jails like the Hammonds, for whom the Oregon Standoff protest was held in the first place.

Donald Trump called for freedom for a Venezuelan political prisoner, Leopoldo Lopez, on Wednesday in a tweet featuring a picture of the president with his wife Lillian Tintori at the White House.

Hopefully Trump and Sessions will get to work freeing political prisoners in this country like those associated with the Oregon Standoff and the Bunkerville Standoff in 2014.