Freemen Talks Likely Today

A senior state Justice Department official was one of two negotiators who met with the encircled freemen last week and may meet with them again today, state Attorney General Joe Mazurek said.

It was John Connor Jr., the state’s top special prosecutor, who joined state legislator Karl Ohs in a two-hour session with the freemen last Wednesday at their 960-acre farm-and-ranch compound about 30 miles northwest of here, Mazurek said Tuesday.

“They’re trying to maintain communication and trying to find a way to resolve this peacefully,” Mazurek said.

Officials had previously refused to name the two negotiators, although one was later identified as Ohs. The second negotiator was initially reported to be an FBI agent, based on a mistaken identification by a reporter who saw the two men leaving the freemen’s compound.

Connor declined to comment on the talks Tuesday night.

Ohs could not immediately be reached for comment, but told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this week: “I try to find common ground both parties can live with.”

Besides meeting with the freemen last Wednesday, Ohs and three other state legislators met with them twice before, early this month. Ohs said he got involved because a close friend of his had relatives inside the compound, who have since left.

Ohs, a cattle rancher from Harrison and Republican state representative, told the newspaper that a small plane flies him to and from Jordan, which is about 400 miles distant.

Harrison is “closer to Salt Lake City than it is to Jordan,” Ohs said.

On Tuesday the freemen received two unidentified visitors at their compound, a man and a woman in a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer.