President Trump pardoned Dwight Hammond and his son Steven Hammond on Tuesday, the White House said, releasing the Oregon ranchers from five-year mandatory minimum prison sentences for arson.
The Hammond case inspired a 40-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 by armed supporters who argued the family was treated unfairly.
The case involved a long-running dispute with the federal government. The ranchers were accused of setting fires in 2001 and 2006 that spread onto federal land.
The men previously served shorter sentences, but were returned to prison after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered resentencing under a 1996 anti-terrorism law.
Before Tuesday, Dwight Hammond, 76, was set for release in 2020. Steven Hammond, 49, was scheduled for release in June 2019 because he had more credit for time served.
Trump’s clemency order was announced while the president was flying to Europe for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit. He left without making public remarks on his decision.
Morgan Philpot, an attorney for the men, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday afternoon that the men had not yet received the paperwork ordering their release. He said no administration official directly told him they were pardoned, but that the word was used both in the White House press release and in a morning communication from Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to the family.
Philpot said the reprieve came as a surprise after months of talk about the possibility, and that a network of family and friends was very grateful. He said that he doesn’t know exactly how Trump came to give the pardon, but credits Walden with lobbying for the men. He noted that Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also pressed their case.
“That’s one of the biggest mysteries,” Philpot said. “With a pardon, it’s very difficult to know who helped make it happen. It’s a very quiet process, it’s a very private process.”
Dave Duquette, a policy advocate with the group Protect the Harvest, told the Washington Examiner that Lucas Oil CEO Forrest Lucas raised the Hammonds’ case with Vice President Mike Pence, a fellow former Indiana resident, and that Pence’s office got the process moving.
Duquette said the case terrified ranchers across the western U.S., who feared tough mandatory minimums for setting fires as a land-management tactic to reduce wildfire risk. Duquette said Lucas had a private jet ready to take the Hammonds from prison in California to their home in Oregon, but Philpot said he had not confirmed the detail.
The refuge takeover happened after the men reported to prison under their new, longer sentences, with activists led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy — who led a 2014 standoff against federal authorities over a cattle roundup. One activist was shot to death by authorities and more than two dozen people were arrested at the refuge, but prosecutors had mixed results in court. The Bundy sons were acquitted of all charges, but others were convicted of conspiracy and property damage charges.
Duquette, who publicly claimed in May that the Hammond case was under active review by the office of White House Counsel Don McGahn, noted that the Hammonds never endorsed the refuge takeover, and said their case may have won public sympathy and executive clemency without the high-profile federal siege.
The men are the third and four people that Trump has released from prison using his constitutional clemency power. Trump previously released drug convict Alice Johnson in June after a visit from celebrity Kim Kardashian. In December, he released convicted fraudster Sholom Rubashkin — whose business went bankrupt after a federal raid nabbed nearly 400 illegal immigrants — at the urging of legal scholar Alan Dershowitz.
Trump has separately issued five pardons — an unusually high first-term number compared to other recent presidents.
In a statement, the White House said: “The Hammonds are multi-generation cattle ranchers in Oregon imprisoned in connection with a fire that leaked onto a small portion of neighboring public grazing land. The evidence at trial regarding the Hammonds’ responsibility for the fire was conflicting, and the jury acquitted them on most of the charges.
“At the Hammonds’ original sentencing, the judge noted that they are respected in the community and that imposing the mandatory minimum, 5-year prison sentence would ‘shock the conscience’ and be ‘grossly disproportionate to the severity’ of their conduct. As a result, the judge imposed significantly lesser sentences. The previous administration, however, filed an overzealous appeal that resulted in the Hammonds being sentenced to five years in prison. This was unjust.
“Dwight Hammond is now 76 years old and has served approximately three years in prison. Steven Hammond is 49 and has served approximately four years in prison. They have also paid $400,000 to the United States to settle a related civil suit. The Hammonds are devoted family men, respected contributors to their local community, and have widespread support from their neighbors, local law enforcement, and farmers and ranchers across the West. Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency.”
