Moments before Ammon Bundy was expected to appear in federal court Tuesday to challenge a judge's order to keep him in custody pending trial, his attorneys asked to withdraw their challenge at this time.

"Mr. Bundy requests this in order to gather further evidence of his statements and actions encouraging a peaceful protest and civil disobedience,'' his attorneys, Mike Arnold and Lissa Casey, wrote in a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Portland.

Bundy, 40, had been scheduled to go before U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman at 10 a.m. to challenge the order of Magistrate Judge Stacie F. Beckerman, who ruled Friday that Bundy remained a danger to the community and was a risk of flight and shouldn't be released from custody.

Bundy, the leader of the monthlong refuge occupation, is one of 11 defendants accused of a federal conspiracy charge stemming from the armed takeover of the federal wildlife refuge outside Burns in Harney County.

His attorneys' motion asked that Bundy be allowed to challenge his detention at a later time. As a result, his 10 a.m. scheduled hearing was canceled.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Bundy again asked the four holdout occupiers at the refuge to "go home now so their lives are not taken."

He said he is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and hasn't spoken yet to his father, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who sent a letter to the Harney County sheriff Monday saying "We the People" will retain possession of the refuge.

Ammon Bundy signaled what he wants to happen next: Have the FBI and Oregon State Police leave Harney County so the county sheriff can "cordon off the refuge" as local residents decide what to do with the land, he said.

"It is simple: The land belongs to the people,'' Bundy's statement said.

Bundy's statement came as U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Mosman Tuesday affirmed a magistrate judge's decision to release co-defendant Joseph O'Shaughnessy with the conditions of home detention and GPS monitoring. Mosman asked for more information in Pete Santilli's case and continued his detention hearing until 4 p.m. on Thursday.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian