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Title: Prosecutors want California man to remove blog posts on FBI informants in refuge occupation case (Oregon, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge)
Source:
The Oregonian/Oregon Live
URL Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-st ... cutors_want_california_ma.html
Published: Jan 7, 2017
Author: Maxine Bernstein
Post Date: 2017-01-08 20:09:17 by X-15
Keywords: Oregon, Malheur, FBI
Views: 190
Comments: 6
As a second trial looms in the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, federal prosecutors are perturbed that a California man associated with a network of militia groups obtained FBI reports on its confidential sources and has written about them in an online blog. Prosecutors on Friday asked a judge to order Gary Hunt to immediately remove all material about the confidential sources from his website and prevent him from continuing to share the sensitive information. The presence of nine informants on the eastern Oregon refuge during the 41-day occupation last winter as well as six other informants who worked on the case for the FBI was revealed during testimony during the first trial of occupation leaders. Hunt, according to prosecutors, apparently got hold of the FBI reports on the informants that prosecutors gave to defense attorneys as part of their sharing of discovery evidence before trial. The court ordered the reports not be shared with others. Occupation leader Ammon Bundy and six others were acquitted of conspiracy and other charges after a five-week trial that ended Oct. 27. "Public dissemination of the material produced under this Court's Protective Order could threaten ongoing investigations and the safety of government confidential human sources, informants or others," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamala Holsinger. Hunt said that an FBI agent contacted him Thursday, handing him a cease-and-desist order signed by Holsinger, chief of the criminal division in the Oregon U.S. Attorney's Office. FBI Special Agent Matthew Catalano reached Hunt by phone and requested a meeting. They met at a restaurant near Hunt's home after the agent assured Hunt he didn't have a warrant for his arrest, according to a court filing. Hunt said the agent asked where he got the documents, wanted him to remove his blog posts and hand over the reports he had. Hunt, who wasn't charged in the occupation, said the government doesn't have the authority to control his work because the court's protective order doesn't apply to him. The order restricted defendants in the case and their attorneys or defense staff from disseminating the material. But prosecutors contend Hunt is "illegally in possession of protected sensitive discovery materials in this case" and not authorized to distribute them, according to their motion. Hunt didn't comply with the cease-and-desist order within 24 hours, so prosecutors on Friday filed a request for the court to order his compliance. "I don't think it has merit," Hunt said. Hunt, 70, was a member of the advisory board for Operation Mutual Defense, a network of militias and supporters founded by Ryan Payne, one of the refuge occupation's organizers. The board was involved in early talks on how to help Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and son Steven Hammond, who were scheduled to return to federal prison on Jan. 4, 2016, for setting fire to public land. Bundy frequently cited protest over the Hammonds' treatment by the federal government as one of the reasons for seizing the refuge on Jan2. The advisory board ultimately voted not to support any action in Burns without the Hammond family's invitation. But Hunt ended up visiting the refuge during the takeover. He went to Burns on Jan. 24, checked into the Silver Spur Motel and drove out to the refuge. On the evening of Jan. 26 after state police shot and killed occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum at a roadblock, Hunt put out a call for supporters to go to the refuge, but retracted it by the next day, he said. Hunt, who lives in Northern California, has written stories under the heading "Burns Chronicles'' on his Outpost of Freedom website. Hunt quotes from FBI reports on the agency's 15 informants during the occupation. The 130 reports, spanning 246 pages, were subject to a protective order, and each page contains the printed words, "Dissemination limited by court order,'' FBI agent Ronnie Walker wrote in an affidavit attached to the prosecutors' court filing. The names of the confidential sources in the FBI reports shared with defense lawyers were redacted. In one blog post, Hunt surmised that a fellow member of the Operation Mutual Defense's advisory board was an informant who provided the FBI details from the board meetings and access to the board's electronic folders containing various documents, Walker wrote in the affidavit. Hunt said he has written about the informants because he believes that "every defendant has a right to meet his accusers'' to prepare their defense. He expects his blog posts might help the second round of defendants charged in the refuge takeover, who are set to go to trial on Feb. 14. "If the government can get into my records, email and drop box accounts, why can't we look at their records?'' he said. Hunt has not posted on his blog the FBI records, but has quoted excerpts from them. In another blog post called, "Informants, What To Do About Them?'' Hunt wrote, "The matter of informants, and the government's efforts to protect the names of those who have snuck into our midst is a denial of justice and to some degree, the Sixth Amendment right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him." Walker argued in the affidavit that the identification of informants could put them at risk, noting that some defendants and other people associated with the refuge occupation "have advocated for violence against federal employees, law enforcement, and and/or informants." Walker cited comments from an unidentified person caught on a video found on defendant Jason Patrick's cellphone. They came during a group meeting at the refuge after Ammon Bundy's arrest. The person said to the group, " (Let's) regroup, get in, go find out who works for the Feds and start executing them. Execute them, their families, everyone. ... Make it a statement. If you work for those crooked (expletive) you're going to die." U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown, who presided over the initial Bundy trial and also is handlng the second trial in February, is expected to rule on the prosecutors' motion. Hunt said Friday he has not obtained a lawyer. One positive development that may come of this, Hunt said, is that his personal standoff with the FBI may put to rest some speculation that Hunt was an informant for the feds.
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#1. To: All (#0)
outpost-of- freedom.com/blog/?p=1920 Gary Hunt, Outpost of Freedom January 6, 2017 Rumor has it that I was visited by the FBI, yesterday, January 5, 2017. That rumor is true It was not an investigation or an interview. Instead, it was to hand me a letter from the Portland, Oregon, United States Attorney’s Office, signed by Pamela R. Holsinger, Chief, Criminal Division, on behalf of Billy J. Williams. That letter was a Cease and Desist letter. Today, I told the FBI messenger that I had no intention of complying; that I wanted to look into my legal rights. A few hours later, I was informed by two sources that the government has filed An affidavit, and request for a court order, and a proposed order wherein they order me to remove my articles with discovery information in them, and refrain from publishing any more discovery information. This is fast becoming a matter of the First Amendment right of the people to know what their government is doing. This same subject went before the United States Supreme Court, in 1971. That case was “New York Times Co. V. United States 403 U.S. 713”, wherein the Court, in defending the public right to know, stated: “Our Government was launched in 1789 with the adoption of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, followed in 1791. Now, for the first time in the 182 years since the founding of the Republic, the federal courts are asked to hold that the First Amendment does not mean what it says, but rather means that the Government can halt the publication of current news of vital importance to the people of this country.” The New York Times prevailed and the government could not restrain the Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers. The matter before us, now, is equally, or more important in that the right of the people to know how the government operates in their private lives, with “spies” reporting everything that they can about what you do, with no criminal intent, to the government. This is what the KGB did in the Soviet Union. It is what the Stasi did in East Germany. Neither country exists, now, as the police state was not compatible with people used to kings and emperors. It is absolutely unacceptable in a country of free and liberty loving people. If exposing government spies that spy on the people is criminal, then I confess to that crime. If, however, We, the People, have a right to know what our government is doing, then the Court on Oregon is criminal. 
-Alex Kurtagic
#2. To: All (#1)
Here are the Burns Chronicles with the informants identities that the FBI does not want seen by the public:
-Alex Kurtagic
#3. To: X-15 (#2)
MAFA - Make America Free Again
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
#4. To: Lod (#3)
I'm curious to see if a lot of this type of leo heavy handedness ends under Trump.
#5. To: Obnoxicated (#4)
We can only hope and pray so, but the guy's got decades of criminality to undo...
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
#6. To: X-15 (#0)
Sorry Sheeple, it is call freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And if you think that your new lord and god will stop it guess again.
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