Less than a week after USDA’s Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins formally dropped the charges against the Maude family and opened a new portal for landowners facing similar persecution by the Biden Administration, 100’s of Americans have already responded.
Secretary Rollins published an op-ed last week in the Wall Street Journal where she announced both civil and criminal charges were being dropped against the South Dakota Maude family who faced theft charges of federal property under the Biden administration. They were threatened with jail time and fines.
Rollins stated: “That’s why I am stepping in and ordering an end to the legal pursuit of the Maudes by the Forest Service and any other branch of USDA. The federal government has dropped all civil and criminal charges against the Maude family. I am also ordering that all USDA pursuits of other Americans in similar situations be immediately halted. Meanwhile, we are investigating how and why this wrongful persecution of an American ranching family ever occurred.”
USDA also launched a new web portal for potential farmers and ranchers who have fallen victim to unfair and politically motivated lawfare originating under the Biden administration. Impacted individuals or businesses can submit their concerns and experiences on the form provided on USDA’s website.
Secretary Rollins announced yesterday in an interview with Rob Schmitt on Newsmax that over 100 individuals have already filed complaints on the new portal.
As the USDA continues to dig into the injustice carried out on the Maude family, we may be learning there was more, much more behind the efforts to remove them from the land. Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for a Constructive Tomorrow, Bonner Cohen, published “Badland’s Nightmare Ends for Ranching Couple,” in The Washington Times after digging into the dispute.
Cohen reported that “Some area ranchers have speculated that the prosecution of the Maudes is part of a plan to create a wildlife corridor between the Badlands National Park and the Black Hills National Forest. In that case, a pretext, such as a disputed property line, could drive ranchers off their property, freeing up the land for a federal wildlife corridor.”
If this turns out to be correct, we might finally see an era where the federal land management agencies, and their personnel are held accountable.
Rollins’ made clear her intent to pursue full justice last week in her press conference: “We must ensure that our farmers and our ranchers have not and will not be targeted for living the American way of life.”
