Image copyright AFP Image caption Ammon Bundy, second from right, leads the group

Seven leaders of an armed militia who led a 41-day stand-off at a US federal wildlife refuge in Oregon have been cleared of the charges against them.

The surprise verdict acquitted them of conspiracy and firearms offences.

A lawyer for one of the leaders, Ammon Bundy, was tackled to the ground by US marshals after shouting at the judge.

The militia occupied the refuge in early January, accusing the government of unlawful interference in the affairs of ranchers.

One protester was shot dead by police during a confrontation outside the refuge when some of the defendants were arrested, days before the occupation was brought to a peaceful end in February.

Image copyright Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Image caption From left to right, top to bottom: Neil Wampler, Jeff Banta, Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Kenneth Medenbach, Shawna Cox and David Fry

The stand-off highlighted the simmering resentment among rural communities in the US West over federal control of land.

A total of 26 people have been charged over the stand-off. Some have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

A second group of defendants is due to stand trial in February.

Prosecutors argued the defendants, led by Ammon Bundy and his brother Ryan, had kept federal employees from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

But defence lawyers say the jury was unable to find beyond reasonable doubt that the occupiers had intended to prevent federal officers from going to work.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Supporters of the defendants celebrated outside the courthouse on Thursday

Drama erupted in the courtroom after Ammon Bundy's defence lawyer Marcus Mumford shouted at the judge, demanding the immediate release of his client. As the exchange escalated, court marshals tackled him to the ground and used a stun gun on him.

Judge Anna Brown said Mr Bundy could not be released because he and his brother still faced charges in a separate armed stand-off case at their father's ranch in Nevada in 2014.

Lawyers for the defendants expressed their surprise at the verdict, including Robert Salisbury who described it as a "stunning victory for the defence".

'Extremely disappointed'

Alongside the Bundy brothers, Jeff Banta, Neil Wampler, Kenneth Medenbach, David Fry and Shawna Cox were all cleared of the charges.

During the occupation earlier this year, the group established armed patrols and vetted those who visited the refuge. They said the takeover was a justified act of civil disobedience against an overreaching federal government.

Image copyright AP Image caption The Malheur Refuge was seized in January, the culmination of a two-decade dispute over grazing rights on federal land

After several weeks one of the protesters, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, was shot dead during a 26 January traffic stop outside the refuge as the Bundys and several others were detained.

After the acquittals, US Attorney for the District of Oregon Billy Williams said he had "hoped for a different outcome".

But he said he strongly believed the case needed to be brought before a court and decided by a jury.

The FBI also said it was "extremely disappointed in the verdict".

'A slap in the face for the feds' - Analysis by James Cook, North America correspondent

Friends of the occupiers - and there are plenty of them in the western United States - will trumpet this verdict as a victory for freedom in the face of federal oppression.

The rationale behind the protest was the charge that the US government acts unconstitutionally in its treatment of ranchers.

A bird sanctuary established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 might not have been the most obvious symbol of such "oppression", but in truth it was an easy, empty target for the heavily-armed militia.

Indeed, the lack of resistance may have helped to secure their acquittal. How could the occupiers have impeded US Fish and Wildlife Service workers "by force, intimidation, and threats," if they walked in to the reserve unchallenged?

Whether the jury acquitted them on such technical grounds or whether it was striking a blow for states' rights is impossible to know at this stage. Still, both interpretations amount to the same thing: a slap in the face for the feds.

The Oregon stand-off explained

Image copyright AFP

How did it begin?

In October last year, a federal judge ruled that sentences on two Oregon ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, for burning federal land were too short and jailed them for about four years each.

Angered by the ruling, Nevada native Ammon Bundy began a social media campaign backing them and travelled to Burns, Oregon, organising meetings.

His group attracted supporters from across a number of states and Mr Bundy called it Citizens for Constitutional Freedom.

On 2 January the armed militiamen took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - and widened their range of demands.

What were the militia's aims?

It was an extension of the Sagebrush Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s that demanded the transfer of federal land in many Western states to local control.

Mr Bundy's own father - a Nevada rancher - had been involved in a protest over cattle-grazing rights in 2014. One policy is to try to persuade ranchers to tear up their federal grazing contracts.

Although many local residents were sympathetic with the cause, many also opposed the occupation of the refuge.

Even the local ranchers who are serving the longer sentences distanced themselves from the militia.

Are militias legal?

The term has a complex history and generally refers to those outside the official military who can be called on in times of need.

The US constitution refers to the president having command of "militia of several states" and that Congress "can call forth militia" to tackle insurrection and invasion.

Those who form such militias cite the constitution and various references in federal and state law as granting them legality.</s>PORTLAND, Ore. — Armed antigovernment protesters led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted Thursday of federal conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the takeover of a federally owned wildlife sanctuary in Oregon last winter.

The surprise acquittals of all seven defendants in Federal District Court were a blow to government prosecutors, who had argued that the Bundys and five of their followers used force and threats of violence to occupy the reserve. But the jury appeared swayed by the defendants’ contention that they were protesting government overreach and posed no threat to the public.

In a sign of the tension that ran through the trial, Ammon Bundy’s lawyer, Marcus R. Mumford, frustrated that the Bundys were not being released, was restrained by four United States marshals after an outburst.

“I knew that what my husband was doing was right, but I was nervous because the judge was controlling the narrative,” said Ryan Bundy’s wife, Angela Bundy, 39, in a telephone interview from the family ranch in Bunkerville, Nev. “But they saw the truth. I am just so grateful they saw it.”</s>PORTLAND, Ore. - A federal court jury on Wednesday acquitted anti-government militant leader Ammon Bundy and six followers of conspiracy charges stemming from their role in the armed takeover of a U.S. wildlife center in Oregon earlier this year.

Bundy and others, including his brother and co-defendant Ryan Bundy, cast the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a legitimate and patriotic act of civil disobedience. Prosecutors called it a lawless scheme to seize federal property by force.</s>A federal court jury on Thursday acquitted anti-government militant leader Ammon Bundy and six followers of conspiracy charges stemming from their role in the armed takeover of a U.S. wildlife center in Oregon earlier this year.

Bundy and others, including his brother and co-defendant Ryan Bundy, cast the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a legitimate and patriotic act of civil disobedience. Prosecutors called it a lawless scheme to seize federal property by force.

In an emotional climax to the trial in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ammon Bundy’s lawyer, Marcus Mumford, was tackled to the floor by U.S. marshals as he became involved in a heated verbal exchange with the judge over the terms of his client’s release.

Moments earlier, gasps of astonishment rose from the packed courtroom. Attorneys exchanged looks of excitement with the defendants, then hugged their clients as the not-guilty verdicts were read. Family members and supporters of the accused erupted in jubilation.

Outside the courthouse, supporters celebrated by shouting “Hallelujah” and reading passes from the U.S. Constitution. One man road his horse, named Lady Liberty, in front of the courthouse carrying an American flag.

The verdict came hours after a newly reconstituted jury, with an alternate seated to replace one panelist dismissed over questions of bias on Wednesday, renewed deliberations in the case. Jurors previously had deliberated over three days.

The 12-member panel found the Bundy brothers and their four co-defendants - three men and a woman - not guilty of the most serious charge, conspiracy to impede federal officers through intimidation, threats or force.

That charge alone carried a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

The defendants also were unanimously acquitted of illegal possession of firearms in a federal facility and of theft of government property, except in the case of Ryan Bundy, for whom jurors deadlocked on the charge of theft.

During the takeover and at trial, the occupiers said they acted out of solidarity with two Oregon ranchers they believed were unfairly treated in an arson case and to protest their larger grievances against federal control over millions of acres of public lands in the West.

The standoff led to the shooting death of one protester by police and left parts of the refuge badly damaged.

While a number of self-styled militia groups had rallied to Bundy’s cause, the occupation generated little sympathy from authorities in nearby Harney County. The sheriff called on the group to end its siege peacefully just after three days, telling them, “It’s time for you to leave our community.”

As the protest wore on, the occupiers drew ridicule on social media and anonymous deliveries of sex toys, glitter and nail polish at the compound.

More than two dozen people, in all, have been criminally charged in the Malheur occupation, and a second group of defendants is due to stand trial in February.

The Bundy brothers still face assault, conspiracy and other charges stemming from a separate armed standoff in 2014 at the Nevada ranch of their father, Cliven Bundy.

How soon any of the seven defendants from the trial concluded on Thursday would be released was not immediately clear.</s>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A jury delivered an extraordinary blow to the government in a long-running battle over the use of public lands when it acquitted all seven defendants involved in the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in rural southeastern Oregon.

Tumult erupted in the courtroom Thursday after the verdicts were read when an attorney for group leader Ammon Bundy demanded his client be immediately released and repeatedly yelled at the judge. U.S. marshals tackled attorney Marcus Mumford to the ground, used a stun gun on him several times and arrested him.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said she could not release Bundy because he still faces charges in Nevada stemming from an armed standoff at his father Cliven Bundy's ranch two years ago.

The Portland jury acquitted Bundy, his brother Ryan Bundy and five others of conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 300 miles southeast of Portland. The jury could not reach a verdict on a single count of theft for Ryan Bundy.

Even attorneys for the defendants were surprised by the acquittals.

"It's stunning. It's a stunning victory for the defense," said Robert Salisbury, attorney for defendant Jeff Banta. "I'm speechless."

The U.S attorney in Oregon, Billy J. Williams, issued a statement defending the decision to bring charges against the seven defendants: "We strongly believe that this case needed to be brought before a Court, publicly tried, and decided by a jury."

The Oregon case is a continuation of the tense standoff with federal officials at Cliven Bundy's ranch in 2014. Cliven, Ammon and Ryan Bundy are among those who are to go on trial in Nevada early next year for that standoff.

While the charges in Oregon accused defendants of preventing federal workers from getting to their workplace, the case in Nevada revolves around allegations of a more direct threat: An armed standoff involving dozens of Bundy backers pointing weapons, including assault-style rifles, at federal Bureau of Land Management agents and contract cowboys rounding up cattle near the Bundy ranch outside Bunkerville.

Daniel Hill, attorney for Ammon Bundy in the Nevada case, said he believed the acquittal in Oregon bodes well for his client and the other defendants facing felony weapon, conspiracy and other charges.

"When the jury here hears the whole story, I expect the same result," Hill told The Associated Press in Las Vegas. Hill also said he'll seek his client's release from federal custody pending trial in Nevada.

U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Nevada, however, said the acquittals in Portland should have no effect in the Las Vegas case. "The Oregon case and charges are separate and unrelated to the Nevada case and charges," Bogden said.

Ammon Bundy and his followers took over the Oregon bird sanctuary on Jan. 2. They objected to prison sentences handed down to Dwight and Steven Hammond, two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. They demanded the government free the father and son and relinquish control of public lands to local officials.

The Bundys and other key figures were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop outside the refuge that ended with police fatally shooting Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, an occupation spokesman. Most occupiers left after his death, but four holdouts remained until Feb. 11, when they surrendered following a lengthy negotiation.

Federal prosecutors took two weeks to present their case, finishing with a display of more than 30 guns seized after the standoff. An FBI agent testified that 16,636 live rounds and nearly 1,700 spent casings were found.

During trial, Bundy testified that the plan was to take ownership of the refuge by occupying it for a period of time and then turn it over to local officials to use as they saw fit.

Bundy also testified that the occupiers carried guns because they would have been arrested immediately otherwise and to protect themselves against possible government attack.

The bird sanctuary takeover drew sympathizers from around the West.

It also drew a few protesters who were upset that the armed occupation was preventing others from using the land. They included Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, who called the acquittals disturbing.

"The Bundy clan and their followers peddle a dangerous brand of radicalism aimed at taking over lands owned by all of us. I worry this verdict only emboldens the kind of intimidation and right-wing violence that underpins their movement," Suckling said.

One of Ammon Bundy's attorneys, Morgan Philpot, had a different perspective after watching Mumford get tackled by marshals. "His liberty was just assaulted by the very government that was supposed to protect it, by the very government that just prosecuted his client — unjustly as the jury found."

There's another Oregon trial coming up over the wildlife refuge.

Authorities had charged 26 occupiers with conspiracy. Eleven pleaded guilty, and another had the charge dropped. Seven defendants chose not to be tried at this time. Their trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 14.</s>(CNN) Seven people who were among the armed occupiers of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon earlier this year were acquitted Thursday of charges related to the 41-day standoff.

Ammon Bundy; his brother, Ryan Bundy; and three other people were found not guilty of firearms charges and conspiracy to impede federal workers. Two others who were acquitted were charged only with conspiracy. The federal jury couldn't reach a verdict on a theft charge against Ryan Bundy.

There was a bit of drama in the courtroom after the decision, CNN affiliate KOIN reported. Ammon Bundy's attorney, Marcus Mumford, was taken down by US Marshals who reportedly used a stun gun after the lawyer argued with the judge that his client should be set free. Mumford spent a brief time in custody, KOIN reported.

The Bundy brothers and their father, Cliven Bundy, still face federal charges in Nevada for a standoff at the Bundy ranch in 2014.

One of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge defendants, Neil Wampler, told reporters: "We came to Oregon ... seeking justice, and we found it today."

Shawna Cox said the jury's decision brought her to tears.

"I was thrilled. We all knew we weren't guilty," she said, according to KOIN.

Harney County Sheriff David M. Ward said he was disappointed.

"This is our system and I stand by it," he added.

Gov. Kate Brown said she respected the jury's decision.

"The occupation of the Malheur Refuge by outsiders did not reflect the Oregon way of respectfully working together to resolve differences," she said.

Dozens of people occupied part of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns on January 2 after gathering outside for a demonstration supporting Dwight and Steven Hammond, father and son ranchers who were convicted of arson, and in defiant protest of federal land policies.

Many of the protesters who took over an unoccupied building on the refuge were armed.

One man was killed during an attempted traffic stop weeks into the occupation. The driver of one vehicle, LaVoy Finicum, was shot and killed when he got out and confronted authorities. Police said Finicum was reaching for a gun in his pocket. Prosecutors said the shooting was justified

Ammon Bundy and others were in another vehicle and surrendered to police.

KOIN reported seven more occupiers are scheduled to go on trial in February.</s>The outcome marked a stinging defeat for federal prosecutors and law enforcement in a trial the defendants sought to turn into a pulpit for airing their opposition to U.S. government control over millions of acres of public lands in the West.

Bundy and others, including his brother and co-defendant Ryan Bundy, cast the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a patriotic act of civil disobedience. Prosecutors called it a lawless scheme to seize federal property by force.

Jubilant supporters of the Bundys thronged the courthouse after the verdict, hailing the trial's outcome as vindication of a political ideology that is profoundly distrustful of federal authority and challenges its legitimacy.

"We're so grateful to the jurors who weren't swayed by the nonsense that was going on," defendant Shawna Cox told reporters. "God said we weren't guilty. We weren't guilty of anything."

As the seven-week-long trial in the U.S. District Court in Portland climaxed, U.S. marshals wrestled to the floor Ammon Bundy's lawyer, Marcus Mumford, as he argued heatedly with the judge over the terms of his client's continued detention.

The Bundys still face assault, conspiracy and other charges from a separate armed standoff in 2014 at the Nevada ranch of their father, Cliven Bundy, triggered when federal agents seized his cattle for his failure to pay grazing fees for his use of public land.

The outcome of the Oregon trial clearly shocked many in the packed courtroom. Attorneys exchanged looks of astonishment with the defendants, then hugged their clients as the not-guilty verdicts were read amid gasps from spectators.

Outside the courthouse, supporters celebrated by shouting "Hallelujah" and reading passages from the U.S. Constitution. One man rode his horse, named Lady Liberty, in front of the courthouse carrying an American flag.

The verdict came after four days of deliberations. One juror, a former federal employee, was dismissed over questions of bias on Wednesday and replaced by a substitute.

The 12-member panel found all seven defendants - six men and a woman - not guilty of the most serious charge, conspiracy to impede federal officers through intimidation, threats or force. That charge alone carried a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

The defendants also were acquitted of illegal possession of firearms in a federal facility and theft of government property, except in the case of Ryan Bundy, for whom jurors were deadlocked on the charge of theft.

The takeover of the wildlife refuge was initially sparked by outrage over the plight of two imprisoned Oregon ranchers the occupiers believed had been unfairly treated in an arson case. But the militants said they were also protesting larger grievances at what they saw as government tyranny.

The standoff led to the shooting death of one protester, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, by police shortly after the Bundy brothers were arrested, and left parts of the refuge badly damaged.

More than two dozen people, in all, have been criminally charged in the occupation, and a second group of defendants is due to stand trial in February.

Mumford told reporters he believed Ammon and Ryan Bundy would remain in custody for the time being but may be transferred to Nevada.

Four co-defendants were free on their own recognizance during the trial. A fifth, David Fry, the last of the occupiers to surrender in February, was released hours after the verdict.</s>Standoff leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others were charged with conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

PORTLAND — In a thorough defeat for federal prosecutors, jurors on Thursday acquitted the leaders of a standoff at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon of conspiracy and possession of firearms at a federal facility.

Neal Wampler, one of the defendants, called the acquittals a “stunning victory for rural America.”

The verdicts followed a five-week trial of the group who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.Standoff leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others were charged with conspiring to impede federal workers from their jobs at the refuge.

Primary charge faced by all seven: Conspiracy to prevent by “force, intimidation, and threats” employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM from carrying out their duties. Other charges faced by some defendants: Theft of government property, use and carry of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The standoff began Jan. 2 and lasted nearly six weeks, bringing new attention to a long-running dispute over control of federal lands in the U.S. West.

The trial had a chaotic, dramatic end as Ammon Bundy s attorney Marcus Mumford argued that his client should be released from confinement while U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown said he must be returned to the custody of federal marshals since he still faced charges in Nevada.

Mumford’s protests in the Portland courtroom grew louder and louder until he was finally tackled by marshals and the judge ordered the courtroom cleared.

The Nevada case involves a high-profile 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up their father Cliven Bundy’s cattle.

Drama marked the jury deliberations, too. One juror accused another of bias and Brown on Wednesday replaced the accused juror with an alternate.

The 41-day takeover that ended Feb. 11 raised tensions across a broader swath of the rural west, including in Washington, where the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge south of Cheney was temporarily shut down. It also stirred a backlash from local officials, tribal leaders, environmentalists and others who resented the militants’ efforts to stake an armed claim to public lands.

The defense team repeatedly sought to dig into the alleged government abuses that prompted the occupation, attempting to portray Ammon Bundy and the six other defendants as fitting into a broader American tradition of principled protest against government overreach and arrogance.

“Thousands came to his cause and his movement not to break the rules … but to try to find a way to get the government to follow theirs,” Mumford said in his closing arguments.

Prosecutors sought to keep the case more narrowly focused on a group of people who took over a wildlife refuge that didn’t belong to them.

“This case at its core is about the rule of law,” prosecutor Ethan Knight told the jury during closing arguments. “The defendants picked and chose which laws apply to them, which laws they will abide by. That is why we are here.”

A total of 26 people were charged in connection with the occupation, with 11 pleading guilty, and others, including Washington resident Darryl Thorn, facing trial next year.

This case is part of a broader Justice Department prosecution of Bundy family members, who have emerged in recent years as major figures in the militant movement to try to turn more federal land over to local control.

The second — and far higher-stakes federal prosecution — is scheduled to get under way in February in Nevada, when Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, their father Cliven Bundy and 15 defendants face conspiracy, assault, weapons and other charges that could result in decades of prison time.

The charges in the Nevada case result from the April 2014 Bunkerville standoff over federal efforts to round up family cattle on public lands over the failure to pay grazing fees.

The Oregon trial was a complicated affair, with the seven defendants, several of whom represented themselves, facing off against federal prosecutors in a ninth-floor courtroom in downtown Portland, more than 300 miles northwest of the remote refuge.

In closing arguments that stretched out over two days, prosecutors stressed that the defendants were not being put on trial for their beliefs, and had an absolute right to protest federal government actions. But they argued that the defendants’ actions stepped over the line into a criminal conspiracy to occupy the refuge and — through the use of armed guards and other acts of intimidation — keep federal employees away from their offices south of Burns.

Bundy, in testimony on his own behalf, called the takeover a “hard stand” against the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond, after a federal judge ruled that they had not served long enough sentences on arson charges.

The takeover ended peacefully as the last four occupiers surrendered on Feb. 11, but before that, on Jan. 26, LaVoy Finicum, a folksy, articulate rancher who had emerged as a spokesman for the movement, was shot to death by law-enforcement officials. The shooting came as police tried to apprehend leaders of the occupation as they drove north to speak at a community meeting in John Day.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials said that the occupation cost the federal government $4.3 million, including restoration and other expenses.

At the Malheur refuge, employees have returned to work. But the headquarters complex, which includes a visitor’s center, will not be open to the public until sometime later this year after completion of a new security system.</s>PORTLAND, Ore. — The armed occupation of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge spanned 41 freezing cold January days. The trial for the standoff's leader, Ammon Bundy, his brother Ryan, and five others took six weeks. And the verdict came in just five days: all defendants were found not guilty of federal conspiracy charges.

It was the grand finale of a federal trial that played out like a three-ring circus. The trial often saw the ninth-floor courtroom packed with more than 100 people - jurors, attorneys, supporters, journalists - and another room four floors up packed with even more.

Just after 4 p.m. Thursday, Judge Anna Brown read all charges: all defendants were found not guilty of charges of conspiracy to impede federal officers and not guilty of possession of firearms in a federal facility. One of the occupiers, Kenneth Medenbach, was found not guilty of theft of a government-owned truck. The jury was hung on the charge of theft of government cameras against Ryan Bundy.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, D, said she is disappointed but respects the jury's decision. "The occupation of the Malheur Refuge by outsiders did not reflect the Oregon way of respectfully working together to resolve differences," Brown said in a statement Thursday.

Like the occupation itself - a coup over federal land ownership that wore on for over a month before FBI agents closed in on the last occupiers - the trial, too, stretched over a month. When Ammon Bundy took the witness stand, he seized it like a pulpit, delivering 10 hours of testimony about his family, his Mormon views and his interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

After four days of deliberation, the circus appeared to infiltrate the jury room. A juror sent a note to the judge, suspicious of another juror's bias due to prior employment with the Bureau of Land Management - a point that came up in jury selection. After a day of argument, the judge dismissed the juror, called in an alternate, and deliberations started anew.

But outside the courtroom, past Homeland Security agents, flak-jacketed cops, a police dog, U.S. Marshals and metal detectors, the circus sideshow unfolded on the green park across the street. There in the middle of downtown Portland, "Patriot" supporters threw a full-blown tailgate party. They set up a charcoal grill and handed out hot dogs and burgers in the rain. A woman handed out miniature flags and pocket-sized copies of the Constitution. From the back of a pickup truck, one woman shouted into megaphones that Judge Anna Brown "should be jailed. You've committed religious bigotry!" They trotted a black horse with a red, white and blue saddle across 5 o'clock traffic, up and down the sidewalks. They wore T-shirts that read "Unindicted Co-Conspirator" and "Free the Bundys."

Early in the trial and often throughout, people stopped to shout back at the protesters. Only here in Portland - the city affectionately dubbed "Little Beirut" - could there be a protest of a protest over political protest.

The narrative that the defense pushed throughout the trial, that the Malheur occupation was simply a protest, convinced the jury. On Thursday just after 4 p.m., Ammon Bundy sat before the court in a suit as the charges were read. Throughout the course of the trial, Bundy wore powder-blue jail pajamas. His attorney announced that Bundy wanted to appear in jail clothes fit for the "political prisoner." Supporters followed suit: donning scrub-style shirts as they watched from the gallery. Defense attorneys argued often: this armed occupation was a "Martin Luther King style sit-in."

On Jan. 2, Bundy and a group of gun-toting, camouflage-clad men executed a military-style takeover of a Southeastern Oregon bird refuge - and then occupied its buildings for several days. At once, the world's eye turned toward the remote, snowy expanse of the west to a place named Malheur: a French word meaning "misfortune" or "tragedy" that was given to a nearby river by French trappers whose ranks were decimated there by Indians.

It seemed, all at once, the French word had modern relevance. Bundy - the son of scofflaw Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who led his own standoff with federal agents in 2014 on his Bunkerville, Nevada, ranch - served as a cowboy-hatted spokesman and leader to a group of "Patriots" who saw their takeover as an act of peaceful, political protest. They were advocating for the rights of rural ranchers. They were taking a "hard stand" after years of "oppression" by government agencies. But locals were spooked: schools in Burns, Oregon - 30 miles away - stayed closed for a week. Federal offices kept their doors shuttered. The county sheriff prepared for his office to be invaded. Signs popped up around town: "Bundys Go Home!"

At daily press conferences from the refuge, Bundy would tell a crowd of shivering reporters that the promise of the rural West was fading because of federal land ownership. Patting the pocket-sized Constitution peeking out of his breast pocket, he'd say the government needed to be stopped - and the Constitution would be their guide.

Though Bundy and his men presented themselves as simple, golly-gee good ol' boys, the operation would play out in the most un-golly-gee of ways: it was tech-savvy, live on the Internet. When the mostly-male group prayed together, videos appeared on YouTube. Calls for support rang across Facebook. Twitter detractors branded the group #yallqaeda and led efforts to mail package of sex toys to the refuge, LOL'ing as videos emerged of the red-faced men drawing plastic phalluses out of the boxes. When one member of the group was shot and killed by state police, a cellphone video emerged online from a passenger in the car.

In the final hours of the standoff, when just four people remained and armored FBI vehicles inched toward them, their screams and tears transmitted to the ears of some 60,000 live listeners on YouTube. To Patriots, this felt like a modern Waco or Ruby Ridge. To critics, this was show-stopping final act inspired by the ringmaster Bundy.

In the courtroom, a new event began. While many of Bundy's 26 co-defendants pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to impede federal officers from performing their duties - a charge that has been used to prosecute extremist left-wingers and Earth First protesters - six others remained steadfast over their innocence. (In February, a second trial for seven more defendants will begin; that same month, Cliven, Ammon, Ryan and two other Bundy sons will face trial in Nevada for the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff.)

In closing arguments, defense attorneys argued that the government was simply doing exactly what the defendants were protesting: overreaching. Defense attorney Matthew Schindler asked the jury to take in the non-Bundy defendants: Shawna Cox, the 68-year-old "old hippie" Neil Wampler, 28-year-old "computer nerd" David Fry, the graying 62-year-old Kenneth Medenbach. "Look at these people," Schindler said. "Is that an army?"</s>Bundy and others, including his brother and co-defendant Ryan Bundy, cast the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a legitimate and patriotic act of civil disobedience. Prosecutors called it a lawless scheme to seize federal property by force.

In an emotional climax to the trial in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ammon Bundy's lawyer, Marcus Mumford, was tackled to the floor by U.S. marshals as he became involved in a heated verbal exchange with the judge over the terms of his client's release.

The verdict came hours after a newly reconstituted jury, with an alternate seated to replace one panelist dismissed over questions of bias on Tuesday, renewed deliberations in the case. Jurors previously had deliberated over three days.

The 12-member panel found the Bundy brothers and their four co-defendants - three men and a woman - not guilty of the most serious charge, conspiracy to impede federal officers through intimidation, threats or force.

That charge alone carried a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

The defendants also were unanimously acquitted of illegal possession of firearms in a federal facility and of theft of government property, except in the case of Ryan Bundy, for whom jurors deadlocked on the charge of theft.
Seven members of the militia who occupied the wildlife refuge, including the leader Ammon Bundy, was acquitted of all federal charges related to the takeover.