Lawyer says Bundy had no problem with refuge workers

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The attorney for Ammon Bundy told jurors Tuesday his client is being falsely accused as a conspirator.

In his closing argument, Marcus Mumford said Bundy and others who occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter made a peaceful stand — but a determined one– against what they saw as federal government overreach in the prosecution of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires on public lands.

Bundy and six co-defendants are charged with conspiring to prevent federal employees from doing their jobs at the refuge through force, threat or intimidation.

Mumford said Bundy did not have a problem with the employees. The attorney said Bundy took with their employer — the federal government.

Closing arguments for the other defendants will be held Wednesday.

The trial has raised many complicated issues, some of them political.

But a federal prosecutor told the jury earlier Tuesday during closing arguments that the case comes down to common sense.

Bundy and the others are accused of preventing Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge when they seized the refuge for 41 days last winter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said the case is not about Western land policy, the 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch or what Ammon Bundy considered to be an unjust sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson.

Those are all issues Bundy has raised or attempted to raise in his defense case.