Navarro cited “substantial prejudice,” “deliberate attempts to mislead and distort the truth” and “‘reckless disregard’ of requirements to turn over evidence” on the part of government prosecutors and investigators as her grounds for declaring the case a mistrial with prejudice, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“The hearing [determined] if the mistrial of the court was with prejudice or without prejudice, and Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning that the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not bring the case against Cliven Bundy back,” Bundy’s attorney Bret Whipple told Fox News. “It was important for [Cliven] to go home to his family, but it was important to him to go home as a free man, with no contingencies, no conditions,” he said.
The case that ended at a federal judge’s bench in 2018 started decades ago with Bundy’s first disagreement with the BLM when he began refusing to pay his grazing fees. Bundy maintains that his family has grazed cattle in the area for more than 100 years and insists that public land belongs to states, not the U.S. government. “I graze my cattle only on Clark County, Nevada, land and I have no contract with the federal government,” he told the LA Times.
Tensions between the Bundy family and the federal government came to a head when the Bundys engaged in an armed standoff with government agents in 2014 when federal land managers tried to round up Bundy’s cattle while they were grazing on public lands.
Bundy was arrested in February 2016 by federal agents for “conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law officer by use of a deadly and dangerous weapon, interference with commerce by extortion and obstruction of justice,” Fox News reports.
Bundy’s two sons, Ryan and Ammon Bundy, also took part in a 41-day standoff with federal agents at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, after which they were arrested. They have since been acquitted of charges for that incident.
U.S. Attorney Dayle Elieson of Nevada released a short statement after the ruling: “We respect the court’s ruling and will make a determination about the next appropriate steps.” 
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Carrie Veselka
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