Trump today issued a full pardon to Dwight and Steven Hammond.
The Hammonds, father and son, are Oregon ranchers whose original “crime” was that a small part of a controlled burn ran onto adjoining federal land. They served time in prison for that (bad enough). Then after they were released, federal prosecutors appealed and managed to get them thrown back into prison. Because terrorism.
Yeah, makes sense. Only if you’re a vengeful fed with a hate-on for western ranchers. Is there any more malicious and ruthless occupational group today than fed prosecutors?
The Hammonds’ re-imprisonment led to the ill-considered, ill-planned, informant-ridden, and ultimately fatal takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge (Bundy work, not Hammond work).
A just and merciful move on Trump’s part. The Hammonds should never, ever have had to do more than pay a fine or reparations.
Tyranny is not happy today;
The Center for Western Priorities issued a statement Tuesday expressing their disagreement with the pardon. In it they said, “Pardoning the Hammonds sends a dangerous message to America’s park rangers, wildland firefighters, law enforcement officers, and public lands managers. President Trump, at the urging of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has once again sided with lawless extremists who believe that public land does not belong to all Americans.”
The comments on Twitter are enlightening. Hundreds of comments that proves they have no clue who the Hammonds are or their circumstances. They just know Twump is Hitwer.
This is good news and Trump as righting another wrong committed by the Obama administration!
I voted for Trump (yeah I know votes don’t matter) as the lesser of two evils and to stave off the destruction of the Constitution for another few years. To say that I have been pleasantly surprised is an understatement. Just the unmasking of the fascist Left and their media stooges has been a major accomplishment. Now if he can somehow avoid a real trade war…
I’ve been on Reddit trying to educate folks about the case. It seems like people either support the Hammonds or they are completely misinformed and think they are the Bundys.
Trump is full of surprises…bad and good.
Someone in his administration is bringing these things to him. Trump is not finding these cases on his own. I wonder who it is.
The NYT says it was Mike Pence in this case:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/us/forrest-lucas-mike-pence-hammond-pardons.html
Thanks for posting Claire, interesting story, I know the NYT is trying to paint something sinister with this article but no matter what they intended it does demonstrate how there are still some good people in high places when it came to righting this particular terrible wrong.