Posted on 02/28/2017 4:01:34 AM PST by Nextrush
Ammon Bundy called a clandestine meeting around the dining room of their host's home in Burns on Dec. 29, 2015, and directed the five other men attending to leave their cell phones and laptops behind...
...Bundy discussed for the first time his idea of taking over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, testified occupier Blaine Cooper, called as a government witness...
Cooper's testimony about a Dec. 29 dining-room sit down marked the first time any one has referenced in court a late December 2015 meeting in which there was talk between Bundy and five other men about seizing the federal wildlife refuge.......
...defense lawyers sought to impeach his testimony, by citing multiple contrary statements Cooper made on jail phone calls, including one to his wife on April 5, 2016, saying "I didn't know they were going in there," in reference to the refuge.
They also played inflammatory videos Cooper made, including one in which he tore out pages of the Koran, wrapped them in bacon and threw them into an outdoor fire pit, and shot arrows at the Koran. They pointed out that Cooper, despite being a convicted felon, was seen with an AR-15 rifle at the Bundy Ranch in 2014. And they elicited testimony that Cooper had spent time in institutions because of behavioral and mental health problems earlier in his life.
Cooper, his hair disheveled, shuffled into the courtroom, his ankles chained together, wearing an ill-fitting dark colored suit, and blue-striped dress shirt-a stark contrast to the confident, camouflage-clad, boastful figure he portrayed on his Third Watch videos that he made and distributed on social media during the refuge occupation....
Cooper, 37, who has entered guilty pleas to conspiracy to impede federal workers in the Oregon case and guilty please in Nevada to conspiracy to commit an offense.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Cooper's testimony also provides evidence for the government's allegations against the four defendants in the second trial.
It would have helped them had it been used in the first trial last fall.
In a video activist Kelli Stewart, who witnessed the testimony, said she believed Cooper was telling a story that was in large part not true and or irrelevant bringing up matters not related to Oregon.
Stewart said he did it to get himself out of jail where he is suffering great hardship and deprivation.
Cooper's poor appearance reminds me of prisoners hauled before Nazi Germany's "People's Court" or of a prisoner brought from some Soviet prison to a show trial.
I surmise that some meeting did take place on Dec. 29 and information was leaked by an informant from that meeting to the FBI.
The employees of the wildlife refuge were told the next day December 30th not to return to work after the break they were beginning for the New Year's holiday.
When the protest began January 2nd, Sheriff Dave Ward of Harney County suggested that another location in addition to the refuge was being occupied.
Ammon Bundy said in his trial last fall on the witness stand that he did not decide on the wildlife refuge protest specifically until January 2nd.
So perhaps the earlier meeting Cooper testified about discussed the notion of a protest but with more than one possible location listed.
I haven’t been following this, but I thought the people involved in the “standoff” were found not guilty a few months ago? So what is this trial about?
WHERE WERE THE FEDS DURING”OCCUPY WALL STREET”...
OR
FERGUSON
OR
BALTIMORE
Selective law enforcement
Trump ought to pardon these protestors... and look into the case..
The BLM, Forest dept and Interior are CRIMINAL...
THE FBI murdered a us citizen without due process...
LEVOY FINICUM
Just like ruby ridge and Waco ...
WHY IS THE FED GOVT IN CONTROL OF 80% OF THE WEST LANDS...
PLUS THE UNDERLYING ISSUE WAS THAT THEY TRIED TWO RANCHERS AS TERRORISTS ..... WHY???
TEH FEDS DESTROYED MORE LAND WITH FIRES AND ALSO HOMES... WITHOUT ANYONE BEING PUNISHED.... WHY THE TWO BROTHERS SINGLED OUT...
Why because the underlying issue is the Buddy ranch and uranium one and selling out US resources auto foreign interests ... and denying people access to federal lands....
Just another corrupt federal bureaucracy run amuck at taxpayer expense and Fed government abuse of citizens.... of course not liberals... JSUT law abiding ranchers...
The seven people acquitted last fall were considered the ‘leaders’ of the protest.
This second group of four are being tried as ‘followers’ of the ‘leadership’.
They are charged with the same felonies to be determined by a jury but misdemeanors have been tacked onto this groups charges with the judge saying she will decide on those.
Better yet - where were the Feds during the DAPL “protest”? They were on “federal land”; there were guns and threats to federal agents, a couple of small riots and an environmental nightmare left over.
The prosecution “played inflammatory videos Cooper made, including one in which he tore out pages of the Koran, wrapped them in bacon and threw them into an outdoor fire pit, and shot arrows at the Koran. They pointed out that Cooper, despite being a convicted felon, was seen with an AR-15 rifle at the Bundy Ranch in 2014. And they elicited testimony that Cooper had spent time in institutions because of behavioral and mental health problems earlier in his life.”
....but will use his testimony to prosecute and imprison someone they have a bigger grudge against.
Blaine Cooper is lying. This is from Pete Santilli’s wife as posted on Facebook.
“Deb Jordan
8 hrs
Here is how I know Blaine Coopers testimony is false ..
It was December 28th 2015 and Pete and I were about 3 hours out of Boise Idaho when Ammon Bundy called. He asked us what our location was .. We told him close to Boise .. it was then we found out he had moved from Arizona to Emmet! We didn’t even know he had moved ...
He offered us to stop at his place for the night and Pete thanked him but said we had a hotel reservation and didn’t want to lose our room ..
Ammon Bundy was home on the night of the 28th approx. 10:00 PM .. and said he would be in Burns in a couple of days ... we did not see him until after the rally began ...
Pete and I arrived in Burns at approx. 7:00 am on the 29th give or take a few.
we checked in .. got our things unloaded and got some sleep.
We met with Blaine .. Jon R .. Jason Patrick .. and Ryan Payne early that evening for our first live streamed community meeting out of Burns that took place at the Fairgrounds .. Ammon Bundy was not present ..
The next evening we attended another public meeting that took place in the same fairground building.. Ammon was not there ..
After the meeting we all met in a small bar in Burns and had some very tasty pizza and watched Blaine Cooper get drunk and hang all over a local Gal ..
When I say drunk .. I mean obliterated ..
Ammon did not enjoy the tasty pizza with us because he was not there ... I never once saw Ammon Bundy on the 29th or 30th ..
The next day was New Years Eve ..
We were invited over to get some interviews and talk with a few of the guys who were staying in a garage right outside town .
It was freezing cold in the garage .. but they had a wood burner going ..... there were several guys there ... Ammon Bundy was not one of them ..
I used the bathroom in the house and did not see him in there either ..
When I asked about Blaine I was told he had a severe hangover and had been in bed all day .. Blaine came out for a short time but was so sick he could not stay ..
Unless Ammon was hiding under a bed he was not anywhere near that house or that garage ..”
The defense used the video to impeach his testimony, not the prosecutors who used him as a witness for their cause.
They are playing to an Oregon jury to create doubt about the veracity of Cooper who they were portraying as crazy and very capable of lying as well.
Is Santilli on a list of persons who could testify?
He is also in jail. Free Press that isn’t so free today.
Thanks for that.
Thinking out loud here; could be called as a witness perhaps, regardless?
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