Comment on FBI describes ammo, casings found throughout refuge

Portland — Jurors on Monday watched a video of seven to eight men rapidly firing assault rifles at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge’s boat launch. FBI agents then held up plastic evidence bags containing the 1,627 spent shell casings recovered near the launch on the property. Of them, 1,050 were .223-caliber casings, testimony showed. Assistant U.S Attorney Ethan Knight argued that the video, posted on co-defendant Jason Blomgren’s Facebook account, directly contradicts the argument by defense lawyers and defendants that the armed takeover of the refuge was a peaceful political protest. “It’s direct evidence of force,” Knight told the judge before she ruled that the video could be shown to jurors. Attorney Marcus Mumford, representing takeover leader Ammon Bundy, had argued that firing the guns wasn’t an act of force in and of itself and that the video wasn’t public on Blomgren’s account but sent in a message to Blomgren’s father. U.S.