FBI arrests Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy at Portland airport

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy was arrested in Portland — (Image credit: George Frey/Getty Images)

Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who famously got in an armed standoff after refusing to pay federal grazing fees, flew to Portland late Wednesday night, en route to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy had led an armed occupation until they were arrested last month. FBI agents were waiting for Cliven Bundy when he landed and arrested him; Bundy was booked into the Multhomah County jail before midnight on Wednesday, detained on a U.S. Marshal hold for his role in the 2014 armed confrontation with Bureau of Land Management agents at his Nevada Ranch.

Ammon Bundy's lawyer, Mike Arnold, said that the arrest of Cliven Bundy could complicate the planned surrender Thursday morning of the last four holdouts at the Malheur refuge. The elder Bundy owes the federal government $1 million in unpaid grazing fees and penalties, and when BLM agents impounded Bundy's cattle in 2014, he and armed militia members confronted the federal agents, who relented rather than shed blood.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.