By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
On Tuesday, FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, 41, who was part of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team deployed out of Quantico, Vayears old, will stand trial in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice related to the 2016 fatal shooting of Robert LaVoy Finicum, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Finicum had served as a spokesman for Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed occupation in 2016 of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon. He was fatally shot by Oregon state troopers, but federal prosecutors allege that Astarita fired two shots, which hindered the police probe into the incident.
Astarita has denied that he fired the shots and his defense team has insisted the evidence is flimsy at best.
Recently, the federal judge in the case tossed two of the five counts.
