FBI, ‘Freemen’ Reach Accord on Key Issue, Official Says

A Colorado legislator said Saturday that a “verbal agreement on a major issue” has been reached between FBI negotiators and the anti-government “freemen,” but federal authorities denied a deal had been made.

The late-afternoon announcement by Republican state Sen. Charles Duke followed three days of tense face-to-face meetings between federal agents and freemen at the eastern Montana farm where armed members of the right-wing group have been holed up.

Duke had indicated that the purported agreement could lead to a peaceful end to the 55-day standoff at the compound.

But FBI special agent in charge Thomas Kubic denied a deal had been struck.

“I want to correct confusing reports earlier today by stressing that no agreement has been reached between the Justice Department and the freemen. . . ,” Kubic said Saturday night in a statement released in Billings, Mont.

“Negotiations are scheduled to resume tomorrow, and we remain hopeful that a peaceful resolution will be found,” Kubic said.

Duke has been acting as a mediator in the talks. He is a leader in his state’s “patriot” movement, a loose confederation of groups that feel established government has gone beyond its legal or constitutional boundaries.

Speaking to reporters near the freemen’s isolated wheat farm 36 miles northwest of Jordan, Mont., Duke said the supposed agreement would not bring an immediate end to the standoff.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re much closer than we were yesterday, or even today at midday,” he said.

At that time, he estimated that the proposal in question, which he said came from the freemen, has a 50-50 chance of being approved by federal authorities.

“If this is not approved, then we’re back to Square 1,” he said, but added that he did not think a rejection would break off the talks.

Duke declined to elaborate on the proposal except to say that unspecified visible signs of a change would be apparent today.

Duke said he canceled his plans to return to Colorado today, but would not say how long he was willing to stay. He said that if the proposal was rejected by authorities, he would release its details.

The proposal came during the second of two rounds of talks Saturday, a 45-minute afternoon session under a canopy erected to protect negotiators from a cold, light rain. A morning meeting began at 9 a.m. MDT and lasted two hours and 15 minutes.

Duke said the talks reached a “very low point yesterday [Friday],” before freemen negotiators returned Saturday with what he termed “creative” proposals.

The day’s first meeting took place at the edge of the ranch, where the two sides shook hands and sat around a card table on folding chairs.

But by the time of the afternoon meeting, the rain had started and temperatures had dropped, forcing the FBI to put up the makeshift tent.

The standoff with the freemen group, which is heavily armed and has members wanted on an assortment of federal check-kiting, securities and conspiracy charges, began March 25 when FBI agents arrested two of its leaders and surrounded the 960-acre compound that the group calls “Justus Township.”

LeRoy Schweitzer, 57, and Daniel Petersen Jr., 53, were charged in connection with schemes involving fraudulent checks and money orders, as well as with threatening the life of a federal judge.

Those who remain barricaded in four modest houses scattered across the farm, including two young girls, claim they are not subject to federal laws and have insisted on having their cases heard by a common law grand jury of peers.