Cliven Bundy was arrested in Portland Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016.
Multnomah County Detention Center
A federal judge in Portland denied Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy bail at a hearing Tuesday.
Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart agreed with prosecutors that Bundy posed a flight risk, and should be held in jail while awaiting trial.
Last week, federal prosecutors in Nevada charged Bundy with crimes related to his longstanding conflict with the Bureau of Land Management, and more specifically to the 2014 armed standoff with federal officials at his ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada.
Bundy was arrested Feb. 10 at the Portland International Airport. Bundy claimed he was on his way to visit his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who are being detained at the Multnomah County Jail on federal conspiracy charges for their roles in an armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon.
Prior to being arrested, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page had stated that Cliven Bundy was coming to Oregon, and urged more militants to travel to the wildlife refuge to support the final four holdouts there. Those militants surrendered the day after Bundy was arrested at the airport.
Cliven Bundy and four unnamed co-conspirators are accused of forcing the BLM to relinquish cattle the government had seized for non-payment of grazing fees.
Before Bundy’s Tuesday hearing, a family member said he isn’t dangerous or a criminal and should have been released from jail because he isn’t a flight risk.
Daughter-in-law Briana Bundy told the Associated Press on Tuesday that a federal judge in Oregon should have let the 69-year-old live at home while he awaits trial.
Prosecutors called Cliven Bundy “lawless and violent” and told the judge not to free him because he doesn’t recognize federal authority.
Reporter Rob Manning and the Associated Press contributed to this report.