“The narrative has changed,” he said. “It went from ‘bad Bundys, clear lawbreakers’ to ‘shady government and maybe they are persecuting these guys.’”

“There’s already a lot of people that distrust the government,” he added. “Maybe more mainstream people will start to mistrust what the government is doing.”

Last month, the judge ruled that the defendants, who had been in jail for more than a year and a half, could be released if they met certain conditions. Cliven Bundy refused and remained in jail, but Mr. Whipple said he was seeking an emergency order for Mr. Bundy’s release.

For two decades, Mr. Bundy grazed his cattle on federal land but refused to pay grazing fees, insisting that he did not have to because he had inherited water rights on the land. In 2014, the Bureau of Land Management seized his cows in an attempt to force him to pay, but hundreds of antigovernment activists, many of them carrying guns, rallied to the cause and went to the family ranch until the confrontation ended with the withdrawal of federal agents.

The standoff made the Bundys national figures — cheered in some quarters and vilified in others.

The Bundys had long alleged misconduct by federal agents and prosecutors, and powerful evidence for their claims emerged last week in The Oregonian newspaper, which made public a complaint that a Bureau of Land Management agent had filed with the Justice Department. The agent alleged unprofessionalism, bias, heavy-handed tactics, and withholding of evidence by his colleagues during and after the standoff, and he said that after he informed prosecutors, he was removed from the case.

For the Bundys, who have long argued that the trial was stacked against them, the judge’s announcement was a vindication of their beliefs.

Andrea Parker, the wife of Eric Parker, an ally of the Bundys who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor related to the standoff, said, “It’s great that they’re showing the malicious prosecution that’s been going on — by the prosecution, the F.B.I. and the B.L.M. It’s finally getting out there, it’s something we weren’t afforded or allowed at our trial.”

Ammon and Ryan Bundy also led an armed, 40-day occupation of a federal wildlife sanctuary in Oregon in 2016. They and five supporters were later acquitted of federal conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from that action.