LISSA CASEY, OSB #086541

MICHAEL ARNOLD, OSB #011873

lissa@arnoldlawfirm.com

mike@arnoldlawfirm.com

Arnold Law

401 East 10th Ave. Ste 400

Eugene, OR 97401

Ph: 541-338-9111

Attorneys for Ammon Bundy

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

DISTRICT OF OREGON

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff,

vs.

AMMON BUNDY et al,

 Defendants.

Case No.: 3:16-CR-00051

DECLARATION OF AMMON 

BUNDY’S COUNSEL IN 

SUPPORT OF HIS OBJECTION 

TO SIGNED PROTECTIVE 

ORDER

I, Mike Arnold, declare and state that I am one of the attorneys’ of record 

herein for the above-named defendant, and I make this Declaration in support of 

the Objection to Signed Protective Order filed herewith based on information and 

belief and my professional opinions, which when set forth herein are based on a 

reasonable degree of professional certainty.

Protective Order

1. This protective order has hampered our ability to defend Mr. Bundy in a 

way that ensures he receives a speedy and fair trial. 

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2. Since the protective order, one of our volunteer paralegals (hereinafter, 

“VO” to protect anonymity for work-product reasons) on Ammon’s team, 

whom we have a contract with, has been doing less productive work 

since receiving discovery. Before we contracted with VO, VO’s public 

online presence once encouraged people to come forward with vital 

information due to VO’s sharing of information that VO found online, 

through tips from others, and through public sources. Now, VO informs 

us that VO feels chilled by the protective order, afraid to disclose 

information for fear that if VO interprets the protective order differently 

than the ASUA’s, or in the event she gets information from public 

sources that also appears in the discovery, VO will find herself facing a 

contempt charge. VO now appears less productive in lead generating due 

to VO’s fears. This was obviously not our intended result when we 

brought VO onto the team in an official capacity. 

3. With a blanket protective order, we are forced, while countless FBI 

agents work around the clock with virtually unlimited resources, to look 

into every lead ourselves, without the assistance of a network of 

thousands of people with information that could continue to contradict 

the government’s information, as we have already witnessed. Without 

this resource, in my professional opinion, we cannot defend a case that 

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR Document 366 Filed 04/05/16 Page 2 of 8
the government and the court has deemed “complex” in the way that it 

needs to be defended and honor a presumed innocent but incarcerated 

defendant’s speedy trial rights. Complex cases require innovative and 

complex defense solutions, particularly when our defense is one of actual 

innocence, free speech, freedom of assembly, and other related defenses 

that will be disclosed to the court at a later date.

Public Leads

4. Ms. Casey and I have been a public presence since this case began for 

specific strategic work-product reasons. Because of the nature of this 

case and the evidence we need to present to defend Ammon Bundy, 

many leads have come forward that would not otherwise have been 

known to us due to our public presence. We often receive over 100 leads 

per day. Because of our public presence, the potential witnesses have 

grown to trust our discretion and use of information that they are scared 

to bring forward. We base this assessment on statements from witnesses 

and our own observations.

5. With the public’s help, we have been able to close out some leads in 

minutes via social media, text messages, emails, phone calls, and other 

forms communication, that would have taken days and considerable 

expense if we had enlisted an investigator to do so. 

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR Document 366 Filed 04/05/16 Page 3 of 8
6. Mr. Bundy’s defense is largely crowdfunded and Mr. Bundy considers 

these sacred funds. If we can avoid the expense of an investigator by 

asking the “crowd” to help figure something out, then everyone benefits, 

including the trial timeline. The attached scholarly article (Exhibit A) 

gives some background on the types of crowdsourcing and the value of 

crowdsourcing. 

7. Another example from our firm tip line: Ammon’s legal team received 

information about a public Facebook profile that allegedly belonged to a 

government agent. Within minutes of us asking the public to determine 

if the page was authentic, the page was hastily removed, and we received 

additional leads regarding what photographs may have been authentic 

and belonging to potentially what government agencies. We will now 

use this information to narrowly tailor our investigator’s work on the lead 

at our client’s direction, saving wasted time and funds, and ultimately, if 

appropriate, have a fact-based request for a Facebook subpoena. 

Crowdsourcing

8. Crowdsourcing has become a critical tool in defending Ammon due to 

intense public interest, a group of loyal supporters of these defendants,

and non-supporters who often tell us they feel compelled to speak the 

truth but are afraid of FBI retaliation given the alleged FBI cover-up, 

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perceived intimidation, and a purported police-state like atmosphere 

created by the government rather than the protesters. We have had 

numerous non-protesters tell us that they feared their time in Burns due to 

the FBI presence, rather than the protest. 

9. Based on my review of the scientific literature, news stories, and 

anecdotes on the benefits of crowdsourcing, it is my professional opinion 

that for Mr. Bundy to receive effective assistance of counsel and a 

constitutionally minimally sufficient investigation, crowdsourcing must 

be employed. The publicity and notoriety of this case is a game changer 

in the legal world and new techniques must be utilized to keep up with or 

combat the awesome power of the federal government through citizen 

action via Crowdsourcing. Governments have been crowdsourcing for 

years with great results ranging from calls for witnesses to releasing a 

piece of evidence and asking for the public’s help in identifying. 

10.In additional to factual leads, crowdsourcing the publicly available 

information, such as the documents that the government released from 

the killing of LaVoy Finicum and the public records released by the 

Governor’s office, has generated additional legal and factual theories and 

leads. We need to be able to do the same for portions of discovery.

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR Document 366 Filed 04/05/16 Page 5 of 8
11.These crowdsourced tasks are intended to help ensure that Mr. Bundy 

and the rest of the protestors will receive both a speedy and a fair trial. 

The government owes him both a speedy and a fair trial and they are not 

mutually exclusive. The fact that the Government may claim that their 

desire to keep documents secret slows down their production of 

discovery without a blanket, overly-broad protective order is the 

Government’s problem and not Mr. Bundy’s problem. They owe him the 

right to a speedy and fair trial even if it requires Main Justice to be 

involved to manage their discovery production issues in a more timely 

fashion while at the same time evaluating what needs to be proposed to 

the court as confidential. 

Research Volunteers

12.We do not have a team of FBI agents at our disposal, nor do we have 

unlimited resources. We do, however, have the power of the people, who 

are willing to donate their time to help defend Ammon and the other 

political protesters. These people research, follow up on leads, 

encourage others to come forward by vouching for Ms. Casey, our 

investigator and me, and have been critical in gathering and using the 

vast amount of information out there. This information helps us defend 

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR Document 366 Filed 04/05/16 Page 6 of 8
our client and the other defendants who stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 

Ammon and do not possess unlimited resources.

13. We need to be able to post information to large groups of people and 

determine its authenticity, as many of the governments assertions in this 

case have turned out to be potentially untrue, from accusations of threats 

of harm, to alleged government cover-ups and misconduct of proportions 

that should be and are disturbing to the public. 

14.In fact, one likely major Government witness told Ammon’s defense 

team that statements attributed to him or her by the Government were 

mischaracterized and at times completely untrue. He or she also told 

Ammon’s team something to the effect that he or she felt pressured, 

intimidated or threatened by statements made to him or her or by the FBI. 

This is extremely exculpatory information which we can likely replicate 

in the future through crowdsourcing with our ability to release select 

portions of discovery at our discretion based on our process in 

determining the need for information based on specific portions of 

discovery that we may or may not redact depending on our professional 

judgment. 

15. I have personally reviewed thousands of Facebook posts regarding this 

case involving leads as well as purported “threats.” Most public threats 

Case 3:16-cr-00051-BR Document 366 Filed 04/05/16 Page 7 of 8
appear to be “impotent expressions of frustration” by both the 

overwhelming number of anti-protestors and the minority that appear to 

support the protest. I personally have received at least one “threat”

regarding something to the effect of having a group of people with guns 

coming to my rural property, presumably by someone who did not 

support the protest. I didn’t go to the police or newspaper with it like 

many likely thin-skinned government officials who have also received 

purported “threats.” Instead, I deleted it and moved on because I 

perceived it as some keyboard warrior (i.e., “troll”) blowing off steam, 

one of the purposes of offensive speech. I refuse to live in a state of fear 

over words, and, in my opinion, the benefit of a public presence to 

increase leads for Mr. Bundy’s case is worth the inconvenience of 

ignoring online trolls, as there has been no credible threat articulated by 

the Government.

I HEREBY DECLARE THAT THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE 

TRUE TO THE BEST OF MYKNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF, AND THAT 

I UNDERSTAND THEY ARE MADE FOR USE AS EVIDENCE IN 

COURT AND ARE SUBJECT TO PENALTY FOR PERJURY. 

DATED this 5th day of April, 2016.

By: /s/ Michael Arnold 

Michael Arnold, OSB #011873

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