Portland — Jurors on Monday watched a video of seven to eight men rapidly firing assault rifles at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge’s boat launch.
FBI agents then held up plastic evidence bags containing the 1,627 spent shell casings recovered near the launch on the property. Of them, 1,050 were .223-caliber casings, testimony showed.
Assistant U.S Attorney Ethan Knight argued that the video, posted on co-defendant Jason Blomgren’s Facebook account, directly contradicts the argument by defense lawyers and defendants that the armed takeover of the refuge was a peaceful political protest.
“It’s direct evidence of force,” Knight told the judge before she ruled that the video could be shown to jurors.
Attorney Marcus Mumford, representing takeover leader Ammon Bundy, had argued that firing the guns wasn’t an act of force in and of itself and that the video wasn’t public on Blomgren’s account but sent in a message to Blomgren’s father.
U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown said a rational juror could conclude the video provides evidence of the defendants’ intent in the alleged conspiracy.
FBI agents who were part of the agency’s Evidence Response Team testified about what they recovered from the sanctuary in February after the 41-day occupation. Bundy and six co-defendants are on trial, charged with conspiring to impede federal employees from the refuge through force, intimidation or threats.
The agents described boxes of ammunition found in multiple sites, rifle cases left in refuge employee Carla Burnside’s office, a trench filled with trash bags near the RV park on the eastern edge of the main refuge headquarters and an improvised bunker dug out by the back gate of the refuge.
FBI Special Agent Christopher Chew said he was the senior team leader, managing the search and seizure of evidence from Feb. 12 through Feb. 23.
Sixty-three people searched 23 buildings, nine outdoor areas and 14 privately owned vehicles on the federal property.
When Chew testified about the spent shell casings at the boat lunch, Mumford asked if investigators found any targets.
Chew said he didn’t. “Just birds and wildlife,” he said.
There were some explosive materials, such as Tannerite, found at the refuge, but no bombs, Chew said.
Ammunition was discovered in multiple places, including more than 300 rounds inside a metal tin in the improvised bunker — a dug-out area on an elevated point between rocks near the refuge back gate, FBI agent Sarah Bibbs said.
Inside co-defendant Duane Ehmer’s red Suburban truck, FBI agents found a maroon pouch containing several government gas cards, four U.S. Department of Interior MasterCards, refuge employee Faye Healy’s identification card as well as cash and checks. The pouch had been locked in a file cabinet in the main building of the refuge headquarters.
Inside refuge employee Carla Burnside’s office, agents found five rifle cases or rifle bags. One of them was a black bag that read “AMMON” on the canvas handle.
