Agent Says Fbi Infiltrated Freemen

The FBI penetrated the Montana freemen with wiretaps, hidden microphones and undercover agents for 18 months before springing the trap in March 1996, the former agent who headed the investigation testified Tuesday.

The FBI did not dare move sooner because the freemen were heavily armed and vowed to kill law enforcement officers who confronted them, said Tommie Canady, who now teaches criminal justice at the University of Arkansas.

Canady was the prosecution’s first witness against six of the freemen who are accused of being accessories by protecting 14 others who were wanted on a variety of state and federal charges. Leaders of the militant anti-government group will be tried in May.

Canady gave a detailed account of the investigation that culminated in an 81-day standoff at the freemen’s remote farm compound some 30 miles northwest of Jordan. It began March 25, 1996, and ended with the Freemen’s surrender on June 13.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Seykora told the jury the militant anti-government freemen had two goals: to make money and attack financial institutions and the American banking system. They issued “millions and millions of dollars worth” of worthless but increasingly sophisticated financial instruments, he said.

Seykora told the jury that they would be shown videotapes depicting violent acts, the six defendants carrying weapons and the robberies of two TV news crews.

Dozens of documents, seized after the surrender, were introduced to show the six defendants, Steven C. Hance, 48, his sons, James, 25, and John, 21, Jon Barry Nelson, 42, Elwin Ward, 57, and Edwin Clark, 47, had to be aware their comrades were fugitives.