Trump pardons ranchers

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has pardoned two ranchers whose sentences sparked the 2016 armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon. Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted in 2012 of setting fires on public lands. They initially received a light sentence, but a judge gave them the mandatory minimum of five years on appeal. The decision led Ammon Bundy and others to take over Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near the Hammond ranch in protest of federal government overreach. The occupation lasted from Jan. 2 to Feb. 11, 2016, when Bundy was arrested in a traffic stop. That same day, Oregon State Police shot and killed Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, another leader of the occupation. In a statement Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the decision to resentence the Hammonds unjust. “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,” she said.