Bundy brothers leave Oregon jail for Nevada

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon and Ryan Bundy are being transferred from an Oregon jail to Nevada, where they will be tried early next year on charges stemming from a 2014 standoff with federal agents near their father’s ranch.

The Multnomah County Jail roster shows the brothers left the downtown Portland jail Wednesday morning. They are being flown to Las Vegas, where they face more than a dozen felony charges.

A jury last week acquitted the Bundys and five co-defendants of conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns.

The brothers led an armed occupation of the refuge early this year to call attention to the plight of two imprisoned ranchers and express their opposition to federal government control of Western lands.

Meanwhile, the brothers’ expected arrival in custody in Nevada is spurring behind-the-scenes activity ahead of a scheduled February trial stemming from an April 2014 standoff with U.S. authorities outside Las Vegas.

Ammon Bundy’s attorney in Las Vegas, Daniel Hill, said Wednesday he understands his client and his brother Ryan Bundy are in transit from Portland. U.S. marshals in Nevada aren’t commenting.

Meanwhile, Cliven Bundy has a new lawyer — local attorney and rancher Bret Whipple — after losing a federal appeals court ruling on Friday.

And the attorney for New Hampshire defendant Gerald “Jerry” DeLemus says he’s seeking to withdraw from the case so his client can ask a judge to let him undo his guilty plea.