Yesterday, federal prosecutors dropped their conspiracy indictment against Pete Santilli, who was one of the people arrested in connection with the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife refuge earlier this year.
I saw Santilli at the Refuge and wrote about him. I considered him a dangerous loudmouth who was escalating the situation in defiance of the efforts by others to deescalate the situation. I’m not sure I understand why he’s been given a pass on the conspiracy charge.
On January 9, I watched as a convoy of armed “militiamen” pulled up to the entrance of the Refuge to “establish a perimeter.” They got out of their vehicles and started waving guns around, shoving reporters and shouting at them to stand back. The militia group was led by a man named Brandon Curtiss, and he told the reporters his group was there to establish order, provide security, and maintain a buffer between the occupiers and officers of the law. Later, his group, still heavily armed, would confront FBI agents who had established a headquarters near the airport in Burns.
Here’s the thing: Santilli announced the arrival of the militia, and took credit for their presence. The militia arrived in the middle of a scheduled press conference at the Refuge entrance. A lawyer from Utah, who had been designated a spokesman for the occupiers, was standing in front of an array of microphones talking about how everyone was working to deescalate tensions, and criticizing the FBI for actions he characterized as provocative. Pete Santilli suddenly stepped forward and interrupted him and asked to speak to the press. The militia convoy was coming up the road as Santilli announced that he had put out a call for security, and that the convoy was a response to his call. He would reiterate this claim a few minutes later when Curtiss was speaking to the press. Santilli greeted Curtiss with gratitude, saying for all to hear, “This is the safest I’ve felt in a week!”
Curtiss responded with, “We’re here. We’re here, brother.”
“Thank you!” Santilli said, “God bless America.”
Most, perhaps all of this would have been documented by the many reporters present.
The prosecutors have dropped the conspiracy charge because the judge in the case ruled that their use of video evidence created by Santilli himself will be constrained. Santilli always claimed to be an “embedded reporter” covering the story for his right-wing, YouTube news channel, and the judge took seriously his claim to a kind of First Amendment immunity. His reporting couldn’t be used against him because “it is not directly relevant to the alleged conspiracy to impede federal officers by force, intimidation, or threat.”
Maybe, but his role in the armed militia presence on January 9 would have been documented by other journalists, and by eyewitnesses like myself, and based on his own statements he was an instigator. He proudly proclaimed his role in calling an armed militia to the Refuge to create a “buffer” between the occupiers and the law.
I do believe Santilli sees himself as a journalist, and that matters, but he made no pretense of being objective, and he was an active participant.
In fact, he was a hyperactive participant in the sense that his call to the militia group was not supported by the leadership at the Refuge. When Brandon Curtiss took over the press conference, he was interrupted by Lavoy Finicum, who came forward to say the presence of the militia was an unwanted escalation and at odds with what they were trying to accomplish. Curtiss and his people later met with Ammon Bundy, Finicum, and others inside the refuge, and they were asked to leave, which they did within a few hours after arriving.
So Santilli was not only a participant, his actions that day were too aggressive and provocative even for the men leading the occupation of the Refuge.
Santilli may have gotten off easy for his actions in Oregon, but he’s still facing a 16-count indictment in Nevada for his participation in the standoff near Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014. Most of the men arrested and charged are in deeper trouble for what happened there than they are for what happened at the Refuge earlier this year.