Oregon Occupation: Ammon Bundy Asks Supporters to Abandon Refuge

“I’m asking the federal government to allow the people at the refuge to go home without being prosecuted,” Bundy said in a statement read by his lawyer, Mike Arnold, outside court. “To those at the refuge, I love you. Let us take this fight from here. Please stand down. Please stand down. Go home and hug your families.”

 

In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, the FBI said Bundy intended for the refuge — which he and his followers occupied on Jan. 2 — to become a permanent headquarters for anti-government “patriots from all over the country.”

 

According to the FBI, Bundy says in a video: “We’re planning on staying here for several years.”

 

Local and federal authorities arrested the suspects late Tuesday afternoon, most of them as they were driving to the town of John Day to attend a community meeting.

 

Read More: Oregon Occupation: Ammon Bundy Asks Supporters to Abandon Refuge – NBC News