Bureau of Land Management supervisor contradicts whistleblower's concerns in Bundy case

Supporters of Cliven Bundy face off with officials from the Bureau of Land Management in April 2014 near Bunkerville, Nevada. (AP Photo)

A U.S. Bureau of Land Management supervisor assigned in February to examine an agent's case file from his investigation into how the government handled the 2014 armed standoff with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy found no material deliberately withheld from prosecutors that would help the defense, according to a government memo.

The Feb. 18 memo, obtained Saturday by The Oregonian/OregonLive, provides a counterpoint to a whistleblower email sent last month by the agency's original lead investigator alleging that his bosses tried to silence his concerns about Dan Love, who led the agency's operation to impound Bundy's cattle, and failed to share information that would assist the defense.

Steven Myhre, Nevada's current acting U.S. attorney who is leading the prosecution of Bundy, removed Bureau of Land Management agent Larry Wooten from the investigative team on Feb. 17 after Wooten had raised concerns that the government was withholding discovery evidence involving Love. Wooten's removal came during the first trial stemming from the Bunkerville standoff.

Myhre asked Kent Kleman, an assistant special agent for the land bureau, to collect and review Wooten's case materials to "identify any previously undisclosed information.''

Myhre, in particular, asked Kleman to review "Wooten's 'rumor log' that Wooten implied to the prosecutors contained this withheld exculpatory information.'' Kleman also was directed to look for any material related to a claim by Wooten that Love ordered his federal agents to "rough up'' Bundy family members or to "kick Cliven Bundy in the teeth,'' as Wooten had reported. Myhre informed Kleman that Wooten had said he believed the federal land agency lacked law enforcement authority.

In the Feb. 18 memo by Kleman, he wrote that he found no new evidence in Wooten's case material or notes that might help the defense and no evidence that Love told agents to rough up the Bundys.

Nine months later, Wooten sent a scathing 18-page memo to the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging widespread misconduct among supervisory Bureau of Land Management agents and repeating his earlier allegations that Love and others withheld evidence that would embarrass the agency.  Wooten's Nov. 27 document was forwarded to federal prosecutors in the Bundy case, and they shared it with defense lawyers on Dec. 8 as the trial of Cliven Bundy, two of his sons, Ammon and Ryan, and co-defendant Ryan Payne was underway.

The Bundys and Payne are accused of organizing a massive armed assault to thwart federal rangers from carrying out a court order to round up the Bundy family cattle that were trespassing on federal public land. Bundy had failed to pay grazing fees and fines for two decades.

In his February memo, Kleman said he and Loren Good, a BLM special agent in charge, collected Wooten's electronic and hand-written case materials. Kleman also asked Wooten about the rumor log, and Wooten told him it was a list of talking notes he had compiled for a conference call with prosecutors in 2016. Wooten said he kept those notes in his daily calendar, which was at his home. He agreed to turn those notes over on the Monday following the upcoming weekend.

Kleman also instructed Wooten that he could no longer represent his agency on the Bundy case and as someone with "insider knowledge'' about the criminal investigation, he wasn't to have any contact with any outside party about the case. If Wooten needed to speak with anyone about the case, he was permitted to talk only with Kleman, the memo said.

As promised, Wooten on Feb. 21 turned over several loose pages of handwritten notes.

Kleman reported that he interviewed another agency agent who shared an office with Wooten for about a year. Special agent Kyle Gandiaga, who was on the ground during the April 2014 standoff, said Wooten often spoke about Love's "leadership failings" and the arrest of another Bundy son, Dave Bundy, on April 6, 2014, when discussing the cattle impound.

Gandiaga said it was he who had relayed to Wooten that Love gave something akin to a "halftime pep talk'' to officers at the first briefing for the cattle roundup on April 5, 2014. Another agent, Rand Stover, known for his calm, measured personality, had been addressing officers when Love interrupted and took over.

Gandiaga described Love's message, though he couldn't remember the exact words Love used.  He recalled Love acting like a coach and saying that the federal agents weren't going to accept any interference and would gather the cattle in the middle of the day and not hide in the shadows.

Gandiago, in relaying Love's message, said he was the one who came up with the phrase that "they were going to kick'' Bundy in the mouth, but that he told Wooten those weren't the exact words Love used and cautioned him not to put that in his notes.

According to Gandiag, Love told the officers that they weren't going to gather cattle on the fringes of the rangeland "but that they were going to do it right in front of Cliven Bundy to let him know they were serious about it,'' Kleman wrote in his memo. Gandiaga told Kleman that he never heard Love say officers should rough up the Bundys or "kick Cliven" in the teeth or mouth.

In his Feb. 18 memo, Kleman said he reviewed all of Wooten's handwritten notes and case material and found nothing of exculpatory value, meaning helpful for the defense. He also noted he found "opinion statements as opposed to factual information'' within Wooten's notes and that Wooten had explored possible defense theories in the case. (Kleman didn't receive Wooten's handwritten notes until Feb. 21, so it's unclear if Kleman updated his memo days later.)

Kleman did write that Wooten's notes referenced BLM material not turned over or destroyed, identifying shredded documents, unprofessional emails and gaps in audio recordings. But Kleman said all that information was made known to the prosecution and defense.

"I determined that there is no new exculpatory information contained within them,'' Kleman wrote in the memo. "I asked Wooten whether he turned in all investigative findings to federal prosecutors, and he stated he turned over 100 percent of his case information to the prosecutors during the discovery process.''

In stark contrast, Wooten wrote in his whistleblower memo last month that among the case material seized from him was evidence of Love's "heavy handedness'' during the cattle operation, that Love ignored direction from higher-level supervisors and the U.S. Attorney's Office, and documentation of alleged gross supervisory misconduct.

Wooten also repeatedly described his supervisor, who searched through his case materials once he was informed he was being removed from the Bundy investigative team, as part of the problem. The supervisor failed to keep the U.S. Attorney's Office up to date on substantive case findings, Wooten said.

Wooten noted he was driven to send the whistleblower memo because his supervisor "deceptively acted ignorant'' and "dismissive'' about his concerns.

Wooten alleged in his memo a "widespread pattern of bad judgment, lack of discipline, incredible bias, unprofessionalism and misconduct, as well as likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff'' at the Bureau of Land Management's Office of Law Enforcement and Security.

Wooten was removed as lead BLM investigator in the Bundy case, shortly after it was revealed in February that Love was the target of a federal ethics probe in a letter two congressional lawmakers sent to the Office of the Inspector General. A Feb. 14 letter, sent by U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, asked the Inspector General to further investigate Love following its release of an investigative report that slammed the agent for numerous ethics violations. The report found Love used his position to obtain tickets to a sold-out Burning Man festival in 2015, improperly intervened in the hiring process of a friend and bullied employees who could have reported his wrongdoing.

When he was removed from his Bundy investigation role, Wooten said his supervisor "aggressively questioned'' him about who he had shared concerns with about Love or other case-related issues.

Wooten, in his memo to the U.S. Department of Justice, cited his nearly 14 nears as a federal and state law enforcement officer, 10 years as a U.S. Marine infantry officer, and his agency performance evaluations as an "exceptional/superior employee'' who has never been the subject of discipline in the memo.

The federal judge in the Bundy prosecution last week put prosecutors on notice that she has concerns about seven to eight potential evidence discovery violations resulting from the government's failure to promptly share relevant material with the defense.

The judge raised the possibility of a mistrial. Lawyers from both sides are expected to return to court Wednesday to learn whether or not the case will proceed.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.