Is Harry Reid Involved? Seven Answers to Seven Questions You’re Probably Asking Right Now About the Nevada Rancher Situation

MESQUITE, NV – APRIL 11: Rancher Cliven Bundy poses for a picture outside his ranch house on April 11, 2014 west of Mesquite, Nevada. (Getty Images)

Government officials retreated Saturday from federal property in Gold Butte, Nev., leaving behind some 389 “trespass cattle” that had been impounded as the result of a decades-long dispute between a local rancher and the U.S. government.

But while the story has managed to capture the attention of thousands of Americans, it has also managed to confuse thousands more. Indeed, from questions regarding property rights to whether a Democratic senator was involved in the cattle roundup, many have been left wondering what it’s all about and searching for the facts.

So in an effort to provide some clarity on the ongoing developments in Gold Butte, here are some answers to the seven main questions people have asked about the decades-long fight between 67-year-old rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government:

7. Does Sen. Harry Reid have a connection to the Bureau of Land Management?

In a way, yes.

The new head of the Bureau of Land Management recently served as senior policy adviser to Nevada’s Democratic Sen. Harry Reid.

Neil Kornze, 35, left Reid’s office (where he managed public land issues) in 2011 to join the Bureau of Land Management as senior adviser to the director. He later became the deputy director for policy and in 2013.

The U.S. Senate then voted 71-28 on April 8, 2014, to confirm Kornze as the new director of the agency.

6. Is Harry Reid working with the Chinese to force the Bundys out? 

The facts don’t support it.

Reid and his son, Rory, were both deeply involved in a deal with the Chinese-owned ENN Energy Group to build a $5 billion solar farm in Laughlin, Nevada. But that is roughly 177 miles away from Bundy’s 150-acre ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., and 213 miles from the federally owned Gold Butte area where Bundy ‘s cattle graze, according to .

Image source: Google Maps

It’s worth noting that Rory Reid is the former chair of the Clark County commission (Clark County is located near the Gold Butte area). He left in 2011 to work for a Las Vega law firm representing ENN.

But despite the Reids’ best attempts to secure the land for ENN, and despite the Bureau of Land Management expressing concerns that “trespass cattle” could complicate plans to use land in the Gold Butte area for “offsite mitigation for impacts from solar development,” it was all in vain: The Chinese company eventually shelved the project in June 2013 when it failed to find a customer. The deal is over and the proposed construction will not happen.

5. So Who Owns the Land in Question?

The federal government owns the disputed land and has claimed ownership since before Nevada even joined the union, according to a 2013 U.S. District Court ruling.

“[T]he public in Nevada are the property of the United States because the United States has held title to those public lands since 1848, when Mexico ceded the land to the United States,” the ruling states, confirming the federal government’s longstanding claim that it lawfully acquired ownership of the land under the Treaty of the Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The court rejected Bundy’s repeated claim to having an intergenerational right to use the land as invalid and said his arguments against federal ownership carry no legal weight.

“Bundy has produced no valid law or specific facts raising a genuine issue of fact regarding federal ownership or management of public lands in Nevada,” the decision reads.