FBI agents infiltrated a militia by posing as filmmakers in order to obtain statements from the armed militants, and used the recordings against two people on trial, reports said on Wednesday.
According to reports, agents used the interview recordings they had obtained during the standoff during the trial and played them for the jury.
Guised under a fake film company called Longbow Productions, they reportedly claimed to make a documentary about the armed standoff, entitled "America Reloaded."
Defendant Ammon Bundy's attorney criticized the incident, saying that his client has noting to hide but he still "finds it troublesome that the FBI would sink to that tactic."
A total of six defendants are accused of wielding weapons to force federal agents to abandon a round-up of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's cattle in April 2014.
Nearly three years later, the government accuses the six defendants — Gregory Burleson, Orville Scott Drexler, Todd Engel, Richard Lovelien, Eric Parker and Steven Stewart — of charges including conspiracy, firearm offenses and assault on a federal officer. Testimony is expected to take about 10 weeks.
The trial is due to follow in May for Cliven Bundy, sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and two other accused leaders of the alleged conspiracy. Trial for six co-defendants, including two other Bundy sons, is expected in August.
Myhre last week showed photos of each of the first six defendants with a rifle, and he told the jury it's a felony to use a gun to threaten the life of a federal law enforcement officer.
Defense attorneys denied their clients threatened anyone. They portrayed Burleson, Drexler, Lovelien, Parker and Stewart as citizens spurred by scuffles between federal agents and Bundy family members to travel from Arizona, Idaho and Montana to the Bundy ranch to protest government heavy-handedness.
