Report: Trump may pardon Dwight, Steven Hammond

Amid much talk of high-profile pardons by President, Trump, the White House is weighing whether to grant pardons to Eastern Oregon father-and-son ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, whose return to prison helped spark the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early 2016, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

“Ranching and farming groups, as well as some militia adherents, have pushed for clemency to send a signal that federal officials won’t engage in overreach out West,” the newspaper said.

The Hammonds’ supporters argue that the two men, originally convicted in 2012 on two counts of arson, shouldn’t have been forced to serve jail time on two separate occasions.

While they would have normally served a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan initially gave Dwight Hammond three months and his son Steven a year and a day behind bars. But the government won an appeal over the Hammonds’ sentence in 2015, so they were resentenced to serve out the remaining years of a five-year minimum.

Willamette Week reported that Dwight Hammond, 76, is scheduled for release in February 2020. His son, Steven, 49, is set for release in June 2019. Both men, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons, are being held at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution in San Pedro, Calif.

The push to pardon the pair predates the Trump administration, and a petition on the White House website after the 2016 election asked the president-elect to grant such a pardon on the day of his inauguration.

A petition started at Change.org five months ago has gathered more than 8,300 of the 10,000 signatures sought.