Ammon Bundy returns to federal courtroom in Portland as a defense witness (OREGON STANDOFF)

Prosecutors spent twice as long cross-examining Ammon Bundy when he returned to a Porland courtroom Tuesday compared to last fall during his own trial that ended with his acquittal.....

...Bundy was the first witness for the defense of four men who say they were inspired by his videos and calls to take a 'hard stand in Burns" and now face trial themselves.....

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight began his cross-examination the same way he did last year, asking Bundy if he was the leader of the occupation. But Knight covered more ground and pointed out inconsistencies in Bundy's testimony this time versus the first.

Bundy for the first time confirmed the account Blaine Cooper gave jurors a day earlier, saying that he shared his PROPOSAL to take over the refuge with a group of men at a Dec. 29, 2015 meeting at a home in Burns....

"So I felt we should go into the refuge and occupy the refuge, and that would wake them up," Bundy said.

He said Cooper, Jon Ritzheimer, Ryan Payne and B.J. Soper were at the meeting and several others. He said he didn't remember if defendant Jason Patrick was there as well, as Cooper had testified Monday. He said he really didn't know Patrick before the occupation.

Bundy said some in the group were opposed to his idea and no concrete plan was reached. "There was no plan to do anything. It wasn't decided," he said. "We left it open.".....

"I felt what was happening to the Hammonds was a gross abuse of government, and I felt it needed to be exposed," he testified as jurors listened raptly, taking notes......

Ammon Bundy was attacked by the federal prosecutors yesterday over a Dec. 29th meeting where the NOTION or PROPOSAL as the story put it for a protest at the wildlife refuge was broached.

The prosecutors want the jury to believe Ammon Bundy decided that day to initiate the protest, that he was conspiring in the meeting to launch the protest on Dec. 29.

Bundy testified in his own trial last fall that the decision for the protest came on Jan. 2 when he spoke before a group at a restaurant in Burns, Oregon and Bundy stuck to that story when confronted by the prosecution.

As for the Dec. 29th meeting it was about suggesting a protest at the refuge, not deciding to do it.

Information from this meeting was leaked to the FBI because the next day employees of the refuge were told to stay home after the New Year's holiday period.

But what buttresses the notion Ammon Bundy did not commit to the refuge protest on Dec. 29th was that Sheriff Dave Ward of Harney County suggested multiple protest locations when word of the occupation at the wildlife refuge came out.

Those attending that meeting like B.J. Soper, who expressed his opposition to the protest and falsely accused David Fry and the three others with him at the end of the protest of having violent intentions, need to face questioning as to whether they were FBI informants.

There is also a trial going on in Nevada involving men accused in the 2014 Bunkerville Standoff. I hope to post on that later.

Your lips to God’s ears.

Still waiting for some sort of sign.

As Ammon Bundy said, the Hammonds were abused by the federal government. That’s why he and the others protested at the wildlife refuge last year.

They were sent back to prison after being released because it was found they were terrorists deserving a five year mandatory sentence.

Their crime was lighting a backfire to protect their property from a brush fire.

Trump should start by releasing them from federal prison.

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