Newly sworn in Ward 6 Councilwoman Michele Fiore with the Las Vegas City Council applauds during her first vote on Wednesday, July 19, 2017.
Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018 | 2 a.m.
Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore praised President Donald Trump’s pardon last month of Dwight and Steven Hammond, two Eastern Oregon ranchers convicted of arson under a federal antiterrorism law for starting grass fires near their home.
“I’m not surprised,” Fiore said in a recent interview on Nevada Newsmakers. “There were a lot of folks, especially elected officials, that worked diligently on the Hammonds’ behalf — Congress members, legislators from his state and other states.”
The Hammonds were convicted of setting a fire in 2001 that consumed 139 acres of federal land, according to the East Oregonian newspaper. Steven Hammond was also found guilty of lighting a “backburn” that spread onto an acre of federal land in 2006, the newspaper reported.
The Hammonds were clearing brush when a backburn accidentally got out of control, Fiore said, noting that the Bureau of Land Management has also let backburns get out of control.
“No one wants to talk about the BLM’s backburns, where the BLM historically has made so many improper backburns and have burnt down many private ranches and barns,” Fiore said. “So there’s never a consequence when the federal government does something wrong. But the consequences when innocent ranchers do something wrong is really criminal in itself.”
The Hammonds received mandatory-minimum sentences under a 1996 antiterrorism statute passed after the Oklahoma City bombing.
“They (federal prosecutors) were charging them with arson, a terrorist act,” Fiore said. “That is such an insult to the victims of true terrorism and it is such an insult to Americans where you have the federal government prosecuting ranchers as terrorists.”
“Their crime did not fit the punishment the federal judge handed down to them,” Fiore said. “The prosecutors came after them with a vengeance.”
Fiore said she opposes mandatory-minimum sentencing.
“Unfortunately, we have some elected officials — federal and statewide — that think having mandatory minimums, versus letting judges make the ruling, is a great idea,” Fiore said. “I personally don’t think it is a great idea. And most of the time of my tenure in the state Legislature, my legislation was about justice reform and reforming prison sentences and really taking a look and making sure the punishment fits the crime.”
The Hammonds became an inspiration for ranchers who took over Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Their sentences “really riled up the ranchers and other folks across America, and then the whole Malheur thing happened,” Fiore said.
Fiore was elected to the Las Vegas City Council in 2017. She represented Assembly District 4 in the state Legislature from 2012 to 2016. She unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016.
