Prosecutors in Oregon have revealed in court documents for the first time that Ryan Bundy, who helped lead the armed occupation of the Malheur wildlife refuge, tried in April to escape from the county jail he’s being held in. He used the old “tie the sheets together to make a rope” technique.





Federal prosecutors said Monday that Ryan Bundy tore his bed sheets and braided them together into 12–15 feet of rope in an attempt to escape Multnomah County Jail…

“We have actual evidence that he tried to escape,” Assistant U.S. Prosecutor Geoffrey Barrow told the court during a pre-trial detention hearing in Portland.

Barrow said jail staff found the braided rope under Bundy’s mattress when they searched his cell on April 8. Barrow also said Bundy had stored containers of extra food along with six pillowcases, a chair, two extra pairs of boxers and more torn sheets.

Barrow told Judge Robert Jones that at the time Bundy told the bailiffs that he was “‘a rancher, trying to practice braiding rope.’”