Was Longbow Productions an FBI operation? Lawyer for standoff defendant seeks to toss interview
A lawyer representing a defendant in the Oregon standoff is asking a judge to toss an interview his client gave to a mysterious production company that some believe to be an FBI front.
The lawyer for defendant Gregory Burleson claims the production company, Longbow Productions, “is a quasi law enforcement group designed to investigate the Bundy ranch standoff occurring in April 2014,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
Lawyer Terrence Jackson claims representatives of the company plied Burleson with alcoholic drinks before the interview “with the deliberate intent to induce him to make incriminating admissions.”
Other defense lawyers in the case have told the Review-Journal they believe FBI agents posed as documentary filmmakers for Longbow Productions to extract admissions from the defendants.
Burleson is one of 17 defendants accused in a standoff with federal employees at a national bird sanctuary that stemmed from opposition to federal control of grazing land.
Seven defendants are on trial in Oregon, including takeover leader Ammon Bundy, for allegedly using threats or intimidation to impede federal employees from doing their jobs, the Oregonian reports.
