Washington, D.C. – Members of the Trump administration held a press conference to stand in solidarity with a South Dakota ranching family that was in the midst of a federal land dispute that began under the previous administration.
Charles and Heather Maude recently saw their criminal charges dropped in their fight against the U.S. Forest Service.
The agency pursued criminal trespass charges against the couple, who were accused of encroaching on a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and were charged with theft of federal property.
The federal land at issue is adjacent to the couple’s hog and cattle operation, which has been run by the Maude family for more than century.
“We have done nothing wrong,” Heather Maude told The Flag’s Scott Hennen, who was at the press conference.
(Above) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks at a press conference outside the USDA Whitten Building in Washington D.C. in solidarity with the Maude family over their South Dakota land dispute (Photo: Scott Hennen)
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins,
and South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden were among those who attended the event outside the USDA Whitten Building.
“We went through the appropriate channels [to challenge the charges],” said Heather Maude. “We did stand up and we fought this for more than a year now with help from a lot of amazing people.”
In a press release ahead of the event, the U.S. Department of Agriculture referred to the case as a “senseless politically motivated prosecution waged by the Biden Administration over 25 acres of federal land.”
The Maudes, who had been preparing for trial, were each facing up to 10 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine or both if convicted.
