{"id":611962,"date":"2021-08-04T22:35:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T02:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=611962"},"modified":"2021-08-04T22:35:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T02:35:56","slug":"biden-nominee-helped-edit-radical-paper-that-gloated-the-feds-were-bungling-investigation-into-tree-spiking-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-nominee-helped-edit-radical-paper-that-gloated-the-feds-were-bungling-investigation-into-tree-spiking-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Nominee Helped Edit Radical Paper That Gloated The Feds Were Bungling Investigation Into Tree Spiking Plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-nominee-helped-edit-radical-paper-that-gloated-the-feds-were-bungling-investigation-into-tree-spiking-plot%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=611962&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><ul>\n<li><strong>Bureau of Land Management nominee Tracy Stone-Manning was listed as an editor on a 1991 issue of the radical Earth First journal that contained a story gloating that federal investigators were bungling their investigation into a 1989 tree spiking incident.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The story, which had no author byline, was published nearly two years after Stone-Manning sent an anonymous and threatening letter to the Forest service warning that the forest in question had been sabotaged with tree spikes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Stone-Manning waited until 1993 to inform authorities about the role she played in the incident.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Stone-Manning has previously distanced herself from the Earth First journal, telling Sen. John Barrasso in writing she never published any writings in the paper and was credited as an editor in one issue for helping with its design and layout.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management was an editor for an issue of the radical Earth First journal that contained a non-bylined story gloating that federal investigators were bungling their investigation into an eco-terrorism incident the nominee was directly involved in.<\/p>\n<p>The nominee, Tracy Stone-Manning, was one of the six members of the editorial collective for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.environmentandsociety.org\/sites\/default\/files\/key_docs\/ef_11_6_1.pdf\">June 21, 1991, edition<\/a> of the radical environmental journal. One of the only stories in the 40-page issue that did not contain an author byline was a story celebrating the Forest Service\u2019s move to deactivate their investigation into the 1989 Clearwater National Forest tree spiking incident in the absence of any solid leads.<\/p>\n<p>Stone-Manning would later be granted legal immunity to testify at a 1993 trial that she mailed an anonymous and threatening letter to the Forest Service in spring 1989 warning that the Clearwater forest had been sabotaged with tree spikes.<\/p>\n<p>The Earth First story, printed about two years after <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/17\/john-barrasso-tracy-stone-manning-biden-withdraw-nomination\/\">Stone-Manning<\/a> sent the anonymous letter, gloated that federal investigators were \u201cbusily bungling facts\u201d by misidentifying the vehicle driven by one of the individuals who had been subpoenaed as part of the investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe affidavit describes a male with long dark hair and a beard seen through a window standing in the Sherwood\u2019s kitchen. The investigator pegged that man to be [John] Lilburn,\u201d the story stated, adding that investigators also saw a Volkswagen bus on the scene.<\/p>\n<p>John Blount, the ringleader of the Clearwater tree-spiking plot who was convicted and sentenced to 17 months in prison in 1993 thanks in part to Stone-Manning\u2019s trial testimony, told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a phone interview Wednesday that Stone-Manning dated Lilburn, who also went by \u201cBikini,\u201d prior to the tree spiking incident and for a time the two lived in a single-bedroom apartment in Missoula.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, those spending your tax dollars were busily bungling facts,\u201d the Earth First story continued. \u201cAt the time, Lilburn drove a bright yellow Honda. The VW bus did not have an engine; it was more a lawn decoration than a vehicle. And if Lilburn was seen through the window, he must have been standing in front of the sink, which means he was doing the dishes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly, the Grand Jury should have been called over Bikini doing the dishes, not over the handy mix up in car colors,\u201d the story stated. \u201cTwo years later, Bikini still loathes doing the dishes, and the feds still have no case. Life goes on in Missoula.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7253131\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"36\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7253131\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7253131 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive.jpg\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive.jpg 299w, https:\/\/cdn01.dailycaller.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive-59x120.jpg 59w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive-620x1254-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive-768x1553-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive-1536x3107-1-scaled.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/clearwater-inactive-2048x4143-1-scaled.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7253131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The non-bylined story in the June 21, 1991, edition of Earth First gloating that federal investigators didn\u2019t have a case in their Clearwater tree spiking investigation. Tracy Stone-Manning was identified as a member of the editorial collective for the issue. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Stone-Manning previously distanced herself from any Earth First writings in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agri-pulse.com\/ext\/resources\/pdfs\/congress\/Stone-Manning-Responses-to-QFRs-6-8-21-SENR-Cmte-Nominations-Hrg.pdf\">written<\/a> responses to questions from Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She said she was listed as an editor for a single issue of the Earth First journal for assisting with the design and layout of the publication.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did not have any published writings in that issue or any other tissue[sic],\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/11\/tracy-stone-manning-tree-spiking-bureau-land-management\/\">Stone-Manning<\/a> told Barrasso.<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Stone-Manning was one of the seven individuals who were <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/17\/john-barrasso-tracy-stone-manning-biden-withdraw-nomination\/\">subpoenaed<\/a> shortly after she sent the letter by a federal grand jury investigating the incident, but she didn\u2019t come clean to authorities about the role she played in the incident until nearly four years later in early 1993, after she had been granted legal immunity.<\/p>\n<p>Stone-Manning told local news outlets at the time that she waited until 1993 to inform federal authorities of her role in sending the letter because she was scared Blount would threaten her life. She also said she has always denounced tree spiking, a known \u201ceco-terrorism\u201d tactic that makes trees unsafe for workers to log.<\/p>\n<p>The lead investigator in the case said Stone-Manning\u2019s refusal to cooperate set the case back by many years in a letter to the Senate Energy Committee in July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was vulgar, antagonistic and extremely anti-government,\u201d Michael Merkley, a retired Forest Service investigator, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEventually, after further investigation, I discovered that she had known all along who had perpetrated the crimes,\u201d Merkley said. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/07\/15\/michael-merkley-stone-manning-tree-spiking-letter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Lead Investigator Comes Forward, Says Biden\u2019s BLM Nominee Was \u2018Extremely Anti-Government\u2019 And Actively Involved In 1989 Eco-Terrorism Incident)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Senate Democrats voted unanimously in late July in a procedural vote to discharge Stone-Manning\u2019s nomination from the Senate Energy Committee, setting her up for a future confirmation vote in the full Senate. She failed to win a single Republican vote amid accusations she lied to the committee about her involvement in the Clearwater tree spiking incident.<\/p>\n<p>A vote for Stone-Manning\u2019s confirmation has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bureau of Land Management nominee Tracy Stone-Manning was listed as an editor on a 1991 issue of the radical Earth First journal that contained a story gloating that federal investigators &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-611962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}