Ammon Bundy's lawyers are facing new state bar complaints that raise ethical concerns about their firm's outreach on social media to gather evidence in defense of their client in the federal conspiracy case stemming from the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife refuge.

Those who filed the complaints submitted to the Oregon State Bar screenshots of the Arnold Law Firm's Facebook page, in which attorney Mike Arnold urged supporters to file public records requests with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the FBI and the Oregon State Police.

The complaints criticized Arnold for swamping law enforcement and other agencies with frivolous public records requests.

For example, Nerei Lopez, of New York, wrote to the bar on April 11 that Arnold's requests that others submit public records requests to the BLM and FBI, for information regarding Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, for example, "is a vindictive attempt to impair these agencies from functioning smoothly.''

In early April, Reid referred to the "trouble caused by the Bundys and their pals'' in comments he made on the Senate floor. Reid criticized the Bundy family for blocking the work of federal employees, both in Nevada and Oregon, and called out other lawmakers who supported the Malheur refuge occupation.

Lopez also wrote that Arnold's attempt to inundate the Nevada senator's office with public records requests "is just another of the Bundy bullying tactics to have the Senator back off.'' She urged the state bar to sanction Arnold for encouraging such actions.

Bundy's lawyers have actively and openly used their law firm's Facebook and website pages to seek information as they prepare their defense in the case.

Ammon Bundy is one of 27 defendants facing federal indictments stemming from the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The occupation began Jan. 2 and lasted 41 days. Ammon Bundy, the leader, has said the occupation was to protest the return to prison of two Harney County ranchers convicted of setting fire to federal land, and to demonstrate against the federal control of public land.

In one Arnold Law posting on Facebook sometime after the Jan. 26 police shooting of occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy'' Finicum, the law firm wrote, "Crowdsouring ACTION ALERT!,'' and urged readers to submit public records requests to the state police for all notes, memos, policies, emails regarding police roadblocks, high-risk traffic stops, high-speed police pursuits, and shootings at occupied vehicles.

Lopez wrote that Arnold is "exploiting" the public records law "in an attempt to paralyze the Oregon State Police.

Jill Kolva, a Massachusetts woman who filed a bar complaint against Arnold, echoed Lopez's concerns, saying Arnold's encouragement of multiple public requests to the state police "will only serve to swamp'' the state agency, and asked the bar to "remedy this travesty of 'investigation' asap.''

A third woman, Catherine Lively, of North Carolina, complained to the bar, contending Arnold advocated bringing firearms to protests in one firm's Facebook post.

"I am appalled that any attorney would suggest using guns at a peaceful protest rather than their voice,'' Lively wrote to the bar.

Arnold's ethics counsel, Peter Jarvis, has written a four-page defense.

"Mr. Arnold is defending Ammon Bundy, a broadly unpopular client, against the full weight of the U.S.,'' Jarvis wrote to the state bar in response to these recent complaints. "The resources that the U.S. can use to build its cases against Mr. Bundy far exceed those available to Mr. Arnold.''

That's why Arnold has sought out public assistance in obtaining documents that might be helpful to Ammon Bundy's defense, Jarvis wrote.

"This kind of calling upon interested members of the public for information or assistance is something that both prosecutors and defense lawyers have long done and will no doubt continue to do,'' Jarvis wrote. "The only difference here from long-ago practices is that Mr. Arnold has used social networking as a means of information-seeking.''

Arnold added that since this case already "has a built-in constituency of supporters who care'' about his client, "a couple of keyboard clicks on Facebook'' helps generate information that he and his fellow lawyers might not discover otherwise.

Further, Arnold never urged anyone to break the law, Jarvis argued.

The Arnold Law Facebook posting about carrying guns to a peaceful protest was in response to an April 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal article, titled "County Commissioner Says Bundy Supporters 'Better Have Funeral Plans.'' According to the article, a Clark County commissioner had said if people from Utah came to Clark County to support the Bundys at Bunkerville, Nevada, "they better have funeral plans.''

The Arnold Law Facebook page cited that article and wrote, "Reason Number 1 to bring your firearms to peaceful protest (so long as you are protesting the government from the "right"): An elected government official threatens you if you attempt to exercise your First Amendment right to assembly.''

Jarvis said what was posted is permitted.

"It is not impermissible speech by a lawyer or non-lawyer to say that one reason individuals might choose to carry guns is if they believed they were threatened with violence by the government,'' Jarvis wrote.

The state bar will consider the complaints.

They are the latest among a string of state bar complaints still pending against Ammon Bundy's lawyers.

Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis had filed a complaint, contending their pretrial statements outside federal court and released recordings of their client will unfairly prejudice future jurors. Two prior complaints dealt with visits by attorneys from Arnold's firm to the refuge before Bundy retained them.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian