Let’s make one thing clear: Cliven Bundy is an outlaw.
For years, he has been getting away with cheating U.S. taxpayers — you and me — by refusing to pay to graze his cattle on public land.
He has justified his defiance using the same nonsensical logic and constitutional contortions that Utah lawmakers have employed to assert their claim the state should take control of federal land.
And when the hapless federal government finally tried to take action in 2014 after years and years of Bundy’s blatant disregard for the law, he and his family engaged in an armed standoff.
Bundy, his boys and co-defendant Ryan Payne were charged with a slew of felonies, including assault, threats against the government, firearms offenses and obstruction.
FILE - In this April 11, 2015, file photo, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy speaks with supporters at an event in Bunkerville, Nev. A federal judge in Nevada is considering crucial rulings about what jurors will hear in the trial of six defendants accused of stopping U.S. agents at gunpoint from rounding up cattle near Cliven Bundy's ranch in April 2014. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
But on Monday, a federal judge — who had declared a mistrial last month — tossed out the case against craven Cliven and his band of dimwits, citing blatant misconduct by the federal prosecutors, specifically the failure to turn over 3,000 pages of material to the defense team.
“The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated,” U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro said of what she characterized as “flagrant misconduct.”
The prosecutors basically argued they weren’t nefarious, just stupid, and the documents wouldn’t have affected the case against the Bundys. The evidence included video taken by an informant inside the ranch during the standoff and evidence the FBI took part in the incident.
Would it have changed the outcome? Probably not. But it’s not up to the government to make those decisions. The defense team is entitled to present its best case. The Justice Department is investigating the attorneys involved, and they should be held accountable for bungling the case.
It is maddening that a bandit like Bundy and his clan aren’t behind bars. But that’s how the justice system works, or at least is supposed to work. Even people with utter disregard for the law get to be protected by it. When the government seeks to take away someone’s liberty — even someone like Bundy who undoubtedly deserves to be locked up — it has to go about it the right way.
The unfortunate fallout will be that Bundy, who has already cheated American taxpayers out of more than $1 million in grazing fees, will likely continue his brazen swindle.
And the right-wing militia members and armed lawbreakers who descended on Bundy’s ranch are going to feel vindicated and emboldened by this outcome, as well as the acquittal for a similar 2016 standoff at an Oregon Wildlife Refuge. It will simply add to Bundy’s already mythic and unwarranted stature as the little guy who stood up to the federal government.
“I’ve been a political prisoner,” Bundy had the gall to tell reporters as he left the courtroom.
But Cliven Bundy is no Nelson Mandela. He’s a simple crook and a thief. And he’s lucky to live in a country where he gets to be protected by the same system of laws he breaks with impunity.
