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On Friday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tim DeChristopher's conviction for disrupting the sale of federal oil and gas leases in an attempt to stop an auction he believed to be illegal. In a 2-1 decision, the court said that DeChristopher knowingly violated the law by participating in the Bureau of Land Management auction in Salt Lake City, bidding $1.8 million for 14 parcels of land with no intention to pay. "Whether the BLM complied with all applicable environmental regulations in conducting the auction has nothing to do with whether the defendant organized a scheme, arrangement or plan to circumvent or defeat" the law, the panel wrote in its decision. The court also found that the two-year sentence, which DeChristopher's lawyers had objected to as disproportionately harsh, was an appropriate response to his public promises to "continue to fight."
Via Washington Post
