Oregon occupier seeking $666,666,666,666.66 in damages from the government

(Image credit: Getty Images)

last updated 19 February 2016

One of the armed occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon has filed a criminal counterclaim against federal officials, saying she "suffered damages from the works of the devil" and deserves a settlement of $666,666,666,666.66.

Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah, is accused of conspiring against the government, and she's one of a handful of the occupiers facing federal charges allowed to be home under house arrest. On Wednesday, she filed an eight-page countersuit, The Guardian reports, claiming she went to the refuge to come "to the assistance of economically vulnerable individuals who were being harassed, threatened, intimidated, persecuted, and incarcerated by arrogant, narcissi [sic] Federal Government officials who have organized together to hijack and steal our Constitutional form of government from the people of the United States of America."

Officials say Cox was a spokeswoman for the group that occupied the refuge from Jan. 2 until last week. She was also in the car with another occupier, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, before he was shot and killed during a traffic stop last month. Cox alleged in her complaint that "State and Federal employees organized together to attempt to murder me," and claimed that the occupation was a legal way to challenge the government.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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