Trump pardons ranchers who inspired 2016 occupation of Oregon wildlife refuge

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

published 10 July 2018

President Trump on Tuesday pardoned two cattle ranchers who were convicted of arson on public lands in 2012 and inspired an armed protest in Oregon in 2016, The Associated Press reports.

The White House announced that Dwight Hammond, 76, and his son Steven Hammond, 49, would be granted full presidential clemency and pardoned from their "overzealous" sentencing. The two men were sentenced to five years in prison in 2015, which the White House called "unjust."

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The Hammond case was central to the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. After prosecutors won an appeal to give the Hammonds more jail time in 2015, organizers protested at the refuge, near the Hammond ranch, for more than a month. Demonstrators said the government was overstepping its bounds in federal land ownership, reports the Chicago Tribune, and continued the armed protest until leader Ammon Bundy was arrested during a traffic stop.

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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.

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