The federal government charged Cliven Bundy, 71, and his two sons Ammon, 42, and Ryan, 44, with multiple felonies for threatening a federal officer, carrying and using a firearm, and engaging in a conspiracy.  This all stems from the family's supposed illegally grazing their cattle on federal land.  

But on Monday, January 8, U.S. district judge Gloria Navarro, who was nominated to the bench by President Obama in 2010, blew up the indictment.  She dismissed all charges due to the government's withholding of critical disclosure information from the defense.  In her opinion from the bench, Judge Navarro chastised federal prosecutors, saying their behavior was "flagrant" and "reckless" and that "the universal sense of justice has been violated."

The government claimed that it had to withhold certain information to protect witnesses.  The judge wasn't buying it.  Among other things, she was troubled by the prosecution's tardiness in providing information about the federal government placing surveillance cameras and snipers outside the ranch.

Snipers!  This hearkens back to government excesses at Waco (1993) and Ruby Ridge (1992). 

This recent dismissal was another black eye for the federal government.  As the L.A. Times reports: 

This decision left federal prosecutors swallowing another defeat at the hands of a family whose defiance has become a rallying cry for Westerners who believe [that] the federal government has no business managing public lands.  Four times now – in high-profile cases in Nevada and Oregon – the Bundy family and its allies have beaten the federal government in court. 

Upon leaving court, Cliven Bundy was quoted as saying, "I'm not used to being free, put it that way.  I've been a political prisoner for right at 700 days today.  I come into this court room an innocent man, and I'm going to leave as an innocent man."

The battle over Western land is sure to go on.  But with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, as opposed to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, the Washington, D.C. swamp will have a harder time extending its suffocating reach to the West.