FBI, ‘Freemen’ Ready for Dramatic Surrender After 80-Day Standoff

With the blessing of a jailed “freemen” leader, FBI agents and members of the extremist group positioned themselves Wednesday for a dramatic surrender ending the 80-day standoff, and the last child at the freemen ranch left the compound in the company of FBI agents.

A flurry of meetings took place within the compound, and Karl Ohs, a Montana legislator who has been acting as a mediator, was flying into Jordan on Wednesday for what he hoped would be final negotiations this morning.

At a jailhouse meeting Tuesday in Billings, freeman Edwin Clark won approval for the surrender plans from LeRoy Schweitzer, a leader whose arrest March 25 started the standoff.

“The agreement is moving forward,” and the surrender could begin as early as mid-day today, a source familiar with the planning said on condition of anonymity.

However, a senior federal official in Washington said the agreement remained fragile.

The surrender plan worked out with the FBI was almost derailed on Wednesday when a farmer tried to begin planting on land he bought next to the 960-acre freemen complex.

The land, bought at a foreclosure sale, had belonged to a relative who is among those remaining in the compound.

A prosecutor said the 16-year-old girl who left Wednesday would be taken into state custody for now. She was identified as Amanda Michele Kendricks, although she’s also known as Ashley Landers and Ashley Taylor.