Thread by @splcenter

The Hammonds inspired antigovernment extremists to occupy a federal wildlife refuge for 41 days when they committed arson on public land.

Pres. Trump just pardoned them.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…

Antigovernment groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…

Jurors at the Hammonds’ trial were told that before the arson, “Steven Hammond handed out 'Strike Anywhere' matches with instructions that they be lit and dropped on the ground because they were going to ‘light up the whole country on fire.’”
npr.org/2018/07/10/627…

In 2016, the Hammonds’ arrest prompted Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of NV cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, to storm the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and stage an armed occupation in hopes of forcing the federal government to open public lands in the West.
splcenter.org/20140709/war-w…

We covered the trial of the Bundys earlier this year.
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017…

The Hammonds aren’t the only figures on the radical-right that Pres. Trump has pardoned:
*Joe Arpaio, convicted of unconstitutional racial profiling
*Conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, convicted of violating campaign finance law
splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…