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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Newspapers Can’t See|Bundy Records Yet

LAS VEGAS (CN) — A federal judge restrained Nevada newspapers from access to government-created documents produced in discovery in the Bundy ranch standoff case, and a second judge denied a defendant's request to get out of jail.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen on Tuesday granted federal prosecutors' motion for a temporary protective order, pending a ruling on the merits of an intervenor motion by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Battle Born Media.

The temporary protective order applies only to materials and documents created or written by the government or obtained through warrants or court orders. It does not restrict sharing materials with the defense that it might otherwise obtain through open sources.

If defendants Cliven Bundy et al. or their attorneys think something should be excluded from the order, they must meet with prosecutors before seeking court intervention.

Any materials they agree should be excluded from the temporary protective order should be prepared in a stipulation and proposed order.

Review-Journal attorney Maggie McLetchie told the newspaper Wednesday: "While we disagree with the broad protections in the interim protective order, we understand that the measure is just temporary while the court can consider the substantive objections to the broad protections the government wants in place for the entire case."

While the newspapers await their day in court, defendant Peter Santilli on Monday lost a second bid to be released from federal custody.

Santilli, the host of a conservative online talk show, has a website and YouTube channel through which he posted podcasts, including on the date of his arrest on Feb. 26 in Oregon.

Santilli, an Ohio resident, says he is a journalist who was reporting on the April 2014 standoff at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev. and again during the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in January and February.

U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro on Monday denied Santilli's motion to be released after federal prosecutors said he was an organizer and active participant in both events, recruited gunmen, and made threats of violence against federal officials.

Santilli is among 19 defendants charged with up to 16 felonies each, including assault, obstruction, extortion and conspiracy, arising from the April 2014 standoff with the Bureau of Land Management near Bunkerville.

Santilli also is among 16 defendants in the Oregon case, and the judge there recently denied his efforts to free himself from jail through the auspices of freedom of the press.

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