Sec. Rollins on Lawfare Against Farmers Under the Biden Admin: I Don’t Think Anyone Thinks a Rancher Should Go to Jail Over a Disputed Fenceline

TRANSCRIPT:

ROLLINS: “One of the first things that I found out when I arrived at USDA in mid-February of last year was the weaponization of the Forest Service against a lot of our great ranchers, especially in the west, and this particular case you had a mom and dad in their thirties, two young children, a fifth-generation rancher. It was an argument over where a fence was placed and an irrigation spigot was placed on 20 acres of -- there are thousands of acres that her great great great grandfather had been using the same fence, line, spigot, etc., and the Forest Service showed up, arrested, indicted and basically said, 'You need to find someone else to raise your children, because you’re gonna go to jail over this fence line.' And so this was in the last administration. So, obviously, when we got here, one of the first things we did was drop those charges, the criminal and the civil charges, etc. It goes to the larger question, sir, of the lawfare — and I believe this is nonpartisan, for the record. I don’t think this is a Republican or Democrat thing. I don’t think anyone thinks that a rancher should go to jail other than maybe an errant Forest Service employee over a disputed finish line. That’s not America."