Las Vegas' craven attention-monger and gun-loving assemblywoman, Michele Fiore was not only a supporter of the illegal Malheur Refuge occupation, she helped organize and plan the siege. according to John Sepulvado of OPB News. She gained notoriety by defending Cliven Bundy's right to allow his cattle to graze without paying BLM land use fees in 2014 and showed herself to be an advocate of armed insurrection against the federal government.

How ironic! Michele Fiore, the proponent of cattle-related welfare, is a member of COWS.

She isn't actually a bovine-American, she's a member of a group with the same name. The Coalition of Western States (COWS) is a group of elected officials who seem to hate the government and seek to destroy its efficiency. Their website describes their mission:

COWS represents over 50 legislators, elected delegates and grassroots leaders predominantly in the Western United States dedicated to stopping Government overreach.

COWS and it’s members from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Montana, New Mexico stand ready to oppose continued federal overreach and abuse, support the rule of law and restore management of public lands to the States where it Constitutionally belongs.

Fiore was one of the four COWS members who went to Oregon to intervene on behalf of Ammon and Ryan Bundy and the other Malheur Refuge occupants. The ordeal ended up with one protester (or, as Fiore would call him, camping enthusiast) shot dead and a total of 26 people, including the Bundy brothers, were charged under federal law with a single count of felony conspiracy, though more charges may be brought in due course.

That 2014 Bunkerville debacle united groups like COWS with other militants like Oathkeepers and CSPOA. Longing for that national notoriety, COWS and their associates saw an opportunity to 'get the band back together' and subsequently cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars in their narcissistic quest for attention.

In October 2015, COWS began posting to social media about the re-sentencing of Dwight and Stephen Hammond. In a Dec. 11 press release, the coalition accused the federal government of engaging in “a literal, international conspiracy to deprive” ranchers and farmers of their property rights in Harney County and throughout the West.

An opportunity to create another national spectacle, they colluded with the domestic terrorists and went up to Oregon to stir things up. Roughly one week after the episode began, they met with officials.

The audio recording of the Jan. 9 “fact-finding” meeting between COWS and Harney County officials shows that Shea, Fiore and at least five other state lawmakers attempted to negotiate on behalf of the militants.

The out-of-town visitors presented themselves as wanting to help understand and, if possible, end the armed occupation at the refuge.

“I’m just looking at peaceful resolve,” said Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, a COWS member who was patched into the meeting by phone.

Oregon Republican State Rep. Dallas Heard also attended the meeting, however he says he is not a member of COWS.

The 90-minute conversation was recorded by participants at the Jan. 9 meeting and given to OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting).

On the recording, Harney County Judge Steve Grasty thanks the group for their concern, but asks them to stay away from the refuge. Grasty said the militants were showing signs of fatigue and defeat, and worried that a visit from lawmakers would reinvigorate Ammon Bundy and the rest of the occupiers.

“If we’re getting close (to a resolution), and you embolden Bundy by your presence, and this runs on for weeks and months, it will be awful in this community,” Grasty said.

The FBI agent also asked the lawmakers not to visit the refuge.

COWS representatives visited the refuge, which was closed to the public. The lawmakers acknowledge they fed the militants information gathered from that meeting, and militant leaders talked openly about what they learned from those disclosures.

Finally, over the phone, Fiore tried to turn the meeting into a call to action.

“The BLM has become a bureaucratic agency of – basically – terrorism,” she said. “So at what point do we band together as elected officials, and say, ‘Enough is enough of the BLM?’ Can we divert this conversation? At what point are we going to actually do something for our citizens?”

She is still actively involved with this case.

Fiore, who is running for Congress, has attended several of the militants’ pre-trial hearings in the downtown Portland federal courthouse. She’s spoken to the press on behalf of the occupiers afterward. She’s come back to Oregon, she said, in part to ensure that defendants in charges related to the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch are treated fairly.

“Basically, I’m here to meet with the detainees on an official capacity… from Nevada,” Fiore said March 11 after a pre-trial hearing for Pete Santilli, an Internet radio host charged in both Oregon and Nevada. “Also, as a representative of Nevada, I would urge all our Nevada attorneys to seek trial outside of Nevada, because I do not think they will get a fair trial in Nevada.”

Michele Fiore was active in much of the planning of the occupation, against the wishes of law enforcement and local officials. She aided and abetted felons who broke the law. How is she allowed to run for office? Fiore is a Republican, I guess that's how.