Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told department employees she is concerned that a jury’s decision to acquit six men and a woman in connection with their occupation of a remote Oregon wildlife refuge could endanger federal employees.
In a letter sent Friday to Interior Department staff, Jewell said she respected the jury’s verdict but that staffers should be vigilant — and careful — going forward.
{mosads}“I am profoundly disappointed in this outcome and am concerned about its potential implications for our employees and for the effective management of public lands,” Jewell wrote.
The Portland jury on Thursday found brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five of their allies not guilty of federal conspiracy charges, handed down in the wake of their six-week occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year.
The occupiers arrived to protest the incarceration of two ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, on arson charges. Defense attorneys spent the five-week trial arguing that the occupiers were exercising their First Amendment right to protest.
Jurors told news outlets that prosecutors had failed to convince them that the occupiers had conspired to keep federal agents from doing their jobs.
Eleven others have already pleaded guilty to other charges relating to the takeover. Another occupier was shot by federal agents during a traffic stop near the wildlife refuge.
In her letter to department staff, Jewell said she and Deputy Interior Secretary Mike Connor had visited the refuge in March, shortly after the occupation ended. The employees she met there, she wrote, had been worried about their own safety.
“The armed occupation in Oregon was and continues to be a reminder that employees in all offices should remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to your supervisor and, where appropriate, law enforcement officials,” Jewell wrote.
The Bundy brothers face charges in another case stemming from a 2014 standoff between their father, Cliven Bundy, and federal agents over grazing fees on Bureau of Land Management land outside of Las Vegas. Ammon and Ryan Bundy were kept in federal custody in advance of that trial.