Cliven Bundy

Cliven D. Bundy (born April 29, 1946) is an American cattle rancher known for his role in the 2014 Bundy standoff. Bundy has advocated a philosophy opposed to what he views as federal government overreach. He is the father of Ammon Bundy, who in 2016 also led another armed standoff against the government, the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

Bundy initiated the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada, an armed standoff with federal and state law enforcement over defaulted grazing fees. On February 10, 2016, Cliven Bundy was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at the Portland International Airport while he was on his way to support the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. He was placed in federal custody, facing federal charges related to his own standoff with the Bureau of Land Management in 2014. On January 8, 2018, Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial and dismissed the charges because the federal government had withheld potentially exculpatory evidence.

Bundy has participated in, and had links with various related movements, including anti-government activism (which opposes federal government involvement in favor of state and local governments) and the sovereign citizen movement (which holds that people are answerable only to their particular interpretation of the common law and are not subject to any government statutes or proceedings). Some view him as a hero for having led a movement of ranchers to encourage more ranchers to join him in defaulting on their grazing fees as per their federal grazing contracts. Bundy's views have also generated significant controversy and criticism; for instance, he came under fire for remarks suggesting that African Americans might have been better off under slavery.

Worldview Bundy advocated for limited federal government involvement in local affairs, particularly in ranching.

Bundy supported the ideas of the sovereign citizen movement. Many of the adherents of the movement argue that the federal government is illegitimate and does not have jurisdiction over individuals, meaning that laws do not apply to them.

Cliven Bundy has said he does not recognize federal police power over land that he believes belongs to the "sovereign state of Nevada."

Bundy has denied the jurisdiction of the federal court system over Nevada land and filed an unsuccessful motion to dismiss the Bureau of Land Management case against him by claiming the federal courts have no jurisdiction because he is a "citizen of Nevada, not the territory of Nevada".

J. J. MacNab, who writes for Forbes about anti-government extremism, described Bundy's views as having been inspired by the sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents claim that the county sheriff is the most powerful law-enforcement officer in the country, with authority superior to that of any federal agent, local law-enforcement agency or any other elected official. According to The Guardian, Bundy told his supporters that "We definitely don't recognize [the BLM director's] jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power or policing power in any way," and in interviews he used the sovereign citizen language, thereby gaining the support of members of the Oath Keepers, the White Mountain Militia and the Praetorian Guard militias. The sovereign citizen movement is considered by the FBI as a major domestic terrorism threat.

On April 12, 2014, Bundy demanded Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie to confront the federal agents, disarm them and deliver their arms to Bundy within an hour of his demand, and later expressed disappointment that Gillespie did not comply.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Bundy's views as closely aligned with those of the Posse Comitatus organization, and it has also asserted that such self-described "patriot" groups were focused on secession, nullification, and the principles of the Tenther movement.

In May 2014, Bundy changed his party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Independent American Party.

Religion Bundy is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has attributed the outcome of the standoff to divine intervention.

Charges of racism About a week after the climax of the standoff, on April 19, 2014, Bundy spoke about witnessing a civil disturbance, the 1965 Watts riots.

On April 23, 2014, Bundy defended his comments by saying "the statement was right".

A number of Republican politicians and talk-show hosts who previously had supported Bundy, forcefully condemned his remarks as racist, including then-U.S. Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who previously had described Bundy defenders as "patriots", and U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. On April 23, 2014, Heller said through a spokesperson that he "completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy's appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way". and had called him "a friend and frequent guest of the show", later said that Bundy's remarks were "beyond repugnant". Glenn Beck condemned Bundy's comments as "unhinged from reality" and urged his supporters to "end your relationship" with him.

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison saw the incident as one of many where an ordinary person is "turned into the poster boy or the poster girl of some political battle du jour." Morrison wrote, "It happens so often that Las Vegas may have a betting line, not on whether these folks will implode but when. The Cliven Bundys of American politics, bit players who are suddenly promoted to center stage, are never as good as their adherents want them to be. They are not empty vessels, but they are flawed ones."

Joseph Curl, writing for The Washington Times, described Bundy's views as incorrect and noted the New York Times had failed to print an entire transcript of the remarks.

Other According to Geoffrey Lawrence, deputy policy director at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, Bundy lost personal credibility with his racist remarks. Lawrence argues that the discussion about federal land use in the West should not be abandoned, and that Congress should act to correct the "harsh and unfair federal misuse of state lands".

2016 arrest and prosecution Bundy was arrested at Portland International Airport in Oregon on February 10, 2016, while attempting to travel to Burns, Oregon to support militants at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy was booked into the downtown Multnomah County jail.

In a 32-page criminal complaint, federal prosecutors charged Bundy with one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, one count of assault on a federal officer by use of a deadly weapon and aiding and abetting, two counts of use and carrying of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and aiding and abetting, one count of interfering with commerce by extortion and aiding and abetting, and one count of obstruction of the administration of justice and aiding and abetting.

Bundy made his first appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland on February 11. He sought court-appointed counsel. At a detention hearing on February 16, Stewart ordered Bundy to be held without bail, citing the serious nature of the charges and the risk of flight. A preliminary hearing was held on March 4, 2016, at the Las Vegas federal courthouse.

On March 10, Bundy refused to enter a plea to the charges against him, as well as recognize federal authority in the courtroom. U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Hoffman subsequently entered a plea of not guilty for Bundy and scheduled his detention hearing on March 17. His trial was initially scheduled for May 2, but it was postponed to February 6, 2017. Two more of his sons, Melvin and David, were arrested on charges related to the Bundy standoff, along with 12 other men who were likewise involved.

On March 10, 2016, Bundy also filed a lawsuit against Judge Gloria Navarro, Senator Harry Reid, Reid's son Rory, and President Barack Obama, alleging a number of conspiracy theories and describing the judge as a "Latino activist." A day later, Bundy's lawyer attempted to serve the judge with the lawsuit during a detention hearing, demanding that the judge recuse herself from the proceedings because she was now involved in a legal conflict with Bundy. The motion was quickly denied, but the judge gave Bundy's lawyer until May 25 to make a case as to whether her previous work as a prosecutor in Clark County, Nevada merited any recusal. On May 25, Judge Navarro denied Bundy's motion for her recusal from the case, and ruled that he would not be granted bail due to factors including: His history of ignoring federal laws and court orders. The number of supporters willing to act as armed bodyguards. The chance that he would flee from arrest or fail to report for court appearances as ordered. The potential for violence by his supporters, constituting a danger to the community.

Charlie Pierce, writing for Esquire, described Bundy's legal maneuvers as "a bubbling stew of pure crazy" sounding "like it was dialed in from someone's car to the worst talk-radio show on Planet Stupid"; while Amanda Marcotte of Salon described it as a nuisance lawsuit and an "incoherent scattershot of a lawsuit." On October 17, 2016, Bundy dismissed his lawsuit against Navarro, President Obama, and the Reids.

In a memo dated November 27, 2017, BLM lead investigator Larry Wooten alleged that he was removed from his role in the Bundy case for objecting to a "widespread pattern of bad judgment, lack of discipline, incredible bias, unprofessionalism and misconduct, as well as likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory [BLM] staff." However, a prior internal investigation by BLM special agent Kent Kleman contradicted Wooten's particular allegations that staff assigned to the case withheld evidence that would assist the Bundy defense.

On December 21, 2017, a mistrial was declared by Judge Navarro, citing a "willful" failure by federal prosecutors to turn over FBI and BLM documents that would potentially aid the defense. Soon thereafter on January 8, 2018, Navarro dismissed with prejudice all charges against Cliven Bundy and his sons, thus forbidding any retrial of the defendants. In her decision, Navarro further criticized prosecutors for willful violations of defendants' due process rights, as well as the aforementioned failure to properly turn over evidence to their lawyers.

Western Watersheds Project Lawsuit In September 2023, the Western Watersheds Project sued the federal government, arguing that the BLM's failure to round up and remove Bundy's cattle from protected lands constituted a violation of the Endangered Species Act. In response to the lawsuit, Bundy blamed the federal government for failing to protect the tortoises, promoted conspiracy theories claiming that environmental laws are just "a moneymaking project for the government and the environmental community," reiterated his previous conspiracy theory claims that the federal government is a "foreign government" whose laws he does not have to comply with and asserted he would once again engage in armed resistance of any attempt to round up and confiscate the cattle or remove them from the lands he illegally grazes them on.

Personal life

Bundy has claimed he was a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims. His children include Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy, two of the leaders of the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. His niece is U.S. Representative Celeste Maloy from

In a 2015 biography, The Guardian reported that Cliven Bundy did not carry a weapon out of concern it would make him an assassination target. The Guardian also reported that prior to his 2016 arrest, Bundy was protected by an armed body guard which he then claimed had 100 "heavy operators" in the Nevada area, ready to protect him if called upon.