Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR

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THOMAS K. COAN, OSB #891732

tom@tomcoan.com
Attorney at Law
1001 SW Fifth Ave., Suite 1400
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 221-8736
Attorney for Defendant

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

DISTRICT OF OREGON

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff,
vs.
PETER SANTILLI,
Defendant.

I.

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Case No. 3:16-cr-00051-BR

DEFENDANT SANTILLIS
MOTION IN LIMINE

Certificate of Conferral
Counsel for Mr. Santilli conferred with AUSA Ethan Knight about this motion. Mr.

Knight advised that as of the date and time of this filing, the Government was still
reviewing the Courts Pretrial Conference Order to determine how and whether the rational
of the Courts rulings would apply to the exhibits and evidence identified here, so the
Government was not yet in a position to make a decision with respect to this motion.

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II.

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Motion
After further review of the Governments Second Amended Exhibit List, defendant

Peter Santilli, through his attorney Thomas Coan, moves the Court in limine for an order
excluding the information identified below from evidence in this case for the reason that
these exhibits are not relevant to the conspiracy charge against Santilli. Most of the
targeted exhibits here are in the nature of heckling mainstream media or counter protesters
similar to exhibits the Court excluded in its Pretrial Conference Order.
1.

Exhibits 118 and 119 Photos of Santilli and Counter Protesters

Exhibits 118 and 119 depict Santilli and several other people out in the media area
just outside the Refuge, facing towards a person at the microphones works for an
environmental activist group called the Center for Biological Diversity. Santilli and
another unidentified person appear to be speaking and making points with the
environmental activist. These photos have no apparent relevant purpose as they are not
related to the alleged conspiracy to impede federal officers by force, intimidation or threat
and therefore should be excluded.
2.

Exhibit 645 Pete Santilli Video

This video clip shows Santilli filming himself outside the Refuge telling his
audience that this is not Nazi Germany and that they were going to expose the Nazis. He
proceeds to criticize and shame the mainstream media for chopping up the five minute
message that Ammon Bundy gives at his daily press conferences, so that their narrative,
the mainstream media narrative gets pushed out rather than Ammon Bundys message. So,
Santilli said he spoke with Ammon Bundy and that going forward he was going to provide
an unedited and unfiltered and broadcast directly to the American public. So, Santilli says,

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if you want to know what Ammon Bundy is saying, you are not going to get it from the
mainstream media. This video is not relevant to the charge and should be excluded.
3.
Exhibit 646 Santilli Video Santilli confronts mainstream media
reporters
This video shows Santilli confronting, at different times, two different mainstream
media reporters just outside the refuge in the media area. In the first encounter, Santilli
asks a CBS national reporter who apparently had just come out from inside the refuge
about whether he had seen any people of color in there. Santilli proceeds to accuse this
reporter and mainstream media for falsely reporting the occupation protest as a racist event.
The reporter also says, Theres just a handful of your guys down there.
Shortly after this encounter, Santilli speaks with another mainstream media reporter,
another CBS reporter from Boise, and he asks him how many different ethnicities he has
seen inside the Refuge. Santilli proceeds to tell the reporter that if he uses the word
terrorist in his report that he has an obligation to report that the government has been
terrorizing all the ranchers. Santilli goes on to say that these people are amongst our
nations greatest patriots and be sure to indicate you dont know what color these people
are and there is one of them behind every blade of grass. You dont know what color
they are; theyre hiding behind every blade of grass.
Finally, a reporter from the Daily Beast speaks to Santilli, and he tells her he has
the second biggest radio talk show on the Internet. If you look me up, Im an extremely
outspoken, controversial radio talk show host. Then, in response to the reporters question
about what brought him out here, Santilli says that he had interviewed Cliven Bundy, that
he video recorded the federal government tasing peaceful protesters, and that Bundy Ranch

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sprouted up from his YouTube video of that incident. He tells her these are our nations
greatest patriots. The true terrorists are the federal government, Santilli says, theyre
terrorizing ranchers. The land, Santilli says, doesnt belong to the federal government.
Finally, Santilli begins telling the reporter about UN Agenda 21, a program designed to
move people into smaller spaces.
There is nothing in these videos that are relevant to the conspiracy charge. Further,
there is very prejudicial information such as Santilli accusing the mainstream media of
being racist, and Santillis statements about his videos at Bundy Ranch as being the cause
of the standoff there. This video should be excluded based on relevance grounds, but also
on 403 and 5th Amendment grounds. By inserting Bundy Ranch into this case, the
Government is forcing Santilli to address an issue in a pending criminal case. Thus he has
a choice to make. To defend myself in this case, he is forced to forfeit his 5th Amendment
right against self incrimination in the other.
4.
Exhibit 647 Pete Santilli Video Santilli puts out a rally call for
100,000 people to join him at a meeting to encourage the sheriff to exercise his
authority to end the occupation peacefully.
This video excerpt shows Santilli outside the Refuge in the press area presenting as
a commentator while recording and live streaming, and he puts out a call for people to join
him for a meeting at the fairgrounds. He calls out for the 6,000 Burns residents to join him
and he calls out for 100,000 unarmed men and women to join as well. The meeting is to
encourage the Sheriff to exercise his authority as the highest law enforcement officer in the
county to resolve the occupation peacefully. Santilli says the people inside want a peaceful
resolution and they will defend themselves only. He goes on to say this could be the
second freest area in the entire county because the federal government does not own it and
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he can prove it. Santilli proceeds to describe Bundy Ranch, and how the sheriff turned his
back but the undersheriff told the BLM to leave and Bundy Ranch is now the number one
free area in the country. Santilli then references Waco and Ruby Ridge and how he wants
to see that not one bit of harm comes to these patriots who are fighting for these
constitutional rights. He calls again for people to join him at Fairgrounds. Lets go, lets
go talk to the sheriff. This video is irrelevant to the conspiracy charge and should be
excluded.
5.
Exhibit 650 - Santilli challenges environmental activist counter
protester after Finicum press conference.
In this video, Santilli is outside the Refuge in the media area present to cover the
LaVoy Finicum press conference the day after some of the occupiers removed the pole
cameras. After Finicum finishes, Santilli gets in front of the microphones and speaks about
Childrens Protective Services (CPS) taking babies. (There were reports that CPS had
taken Blaine Coopers children into protective custody.) Santilli denounces the threatening
intimidation by CPS and the FBI. They can come shoot him if they want to do so. He
doesnt fear them.
In the second excerpt from this same video, an environmental activist and counter
protester gets in front of the microphone and Santilli verbally challenges the statements the
counter protester is trying to make. Santilli mocks him for his position on government
management of land then gets his bullhorn out and speaks loudly as a counter protest of the
counter protesters. These video clips are not relevant to the conspiracy charge and should
be excluded.
6.

Exhibit 652; Video clips from January 21, 2016.

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a)

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Heckling OPB reporter John Sepulvado (49:00 51:10), and later

references back to it (1:33:10 1:34:19)

On or about January 21, 2016 Ammon Bundy met with the FBI near the FBI
compound at the airport in Burns. Santilli was present there to cover this story along with
several mainstream media reporters including Les Zaitz from the Oregonian and John
Sepulvado from Oregon Public Broadcasting. Sepulvado questioned Bundy about reports
he had heard that people with felony and murder convictions were amongst the people
occupying the Refuge. After Bundy responds, Santilli asks Sepulvado whether he or OPB
have investigated Judge Grasty, a Harney County judge, about ethical violations,
corruption and whether he recruited environmental terrorists to come in to town. Santilli
accuses Sepulvado of bias in his reporting and rants at him while Sepulvado walks away.
This video clip should be excluded under FRE 401 and 403. It is irrelevant to the charge.
Approximately 20 minutes after having the confrontation with OPB reporter
Sepulvado, Santilli is in his vehicle with Deb Jordan and Ken Rhoades and he recount his
interaction with the OPB reporter. This should be excluded as irrelevant also.
7.

Exhibit 654 - Santilli video from 1/5/16

a) Interview of John Ritzheimer (06:00 09:30)

This first video excerpt shows Santilli outside the Refuge very early in the morning
interviewing John Ritzheimer who sounds anxious about law enforcement officers taking
an offensive approach to end the occupation. He further says that the sheriff has not been
to the Refuge to talk or negotiate and asks, Whats the rush? Santilli objects to this being
admitted into evidence, as it is irrelevant to the conspiracy charge against Santilli.
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8.

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Exhibit 658 Video shot from hotel room on 12/31/16

a) Clip 1 23:00 30:00 Santilli compares Hammond protest to
Bundy Ranch

In this first clip Santilli compares the rally in support of the Hammonds to Bundy
Ranch. He references Article 1, Section 8, paragraph 17 of the U.S. Constitution and
challenges the Sheriff to exercise his authority as the highest law enforcement officer in
the County to intervene. Help us declare this area the freest area in the United States of
America with the constitutional sheriff who stands up for out US Constitution. He goes on,
Its up t we the people to step up and say not just no, but hell no, youre not going to do
this to this family. They are not terrorists.
b)

Clip 2 34:06 35:08

In this clip Santilli tells his listeners that the BLM is a private, corporate entity that
does not have the authority to own land. He then dares BLM SA Karges to come to the
Safeway parking lot with her guns, badges and dogs, and tell him that the BLM has the
authority to take the land from the Hammonds. Towards the end, Santilli tells Karges to
bring along Daniel P. Love, another BLM agent that Santilli had confrontations with in
Nevada.
This clip is irrelevant and potentially very prejudicial. It is not relevant to the
conspiracy charge because it is not probative of an intent to prevent BLM or DFWS from
doing their duties at MNWR, and it unfairly raises issues about Bundy Ranch that should
be avoided in this trial. Santilli should not be put on trial here for what occurred in Nevada.
By inserting this issue, in order to defend himself Santilli is forced to forfeit his Fifth
Amendment rights. It is not fair to him to do that.
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b) Clip 3 53:09 54:18

In this clip, Santilli tells his listeners that they drove 2,200 miles to come together
as people and and were going to run this frickin place. Were going to tell the federal
government what they should be doing with Dwight Hammond. He again encourages the
people to ask Sheriff Ward to stand with them and defend Dwight Hammond. This clip is
irrelevant.
9.

Exhibit 661 Santilli video of Ammon Bundy Press Conference

a) Santilli implies Judge Grasty is corrupt and AUSA Papagni
committed prosecutorial misconduct (31:47 44:12)

In this video excerpt, Santilli tells his viewers that Judge Grasty is involved in longterm corruption and is going to be exposed, and that AUSA Frank Papagni should be
placed in handcuffs for prosecutorial misconduct and his handling of the Hammond case.
Ammon Bundy appears @ 33:30 to give his daily press conference. After the press
conference Santilli ask, "Ammon, where do you want me?" and Ammon responds "just
down the street." This video has no apparent relevance and should be excluded.
10.
Santilli drives to the building area of the Refuge looking for an
interview of Ammon Bundy (49:00 52:03)
In this excerpt, Santilli is in the Refuge area, he walks to the front door of one of
the buildings, knocks on the door and asks for Ammon Bundy. Bundy is not there, but two
women come outside the building and speak to Santilli while he records and lives streams
the conversation. He tells these women to tell Ammon that he is standing by and ready to
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proceed with the five minutes. This likely refers to a five-minute interview Santilli had
arranged with Bundy. This is irrelevant and should be excluded.
Dated this 2nd day of September 2016.
Thomas K. Coan
Thomas K. Coan, OSB 89173
Attorney for Defendant Santilli

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