US government seeks ruling against miners, armed protesters

(AP) — Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to prevent two miners and their armed supporters from blocking access to public land and threatening government officials over a dispute with the U.S. Forest Service in western Montana.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Helena also seeks a declaration that miners George Kornec and Phil Nappo illegally opened a road, cut down trees, built a garage and denied the public the right to access the White Hope mine near Lincoln.

The legal action has the potential to escalate what has been a peaceful, if uneasy, standoff between government officials and more than 20 armed members of constitutionalist groups who showed up in Lincoln, Montana, last week.

Agency officials sent the miners notice in August 2014, ordering them to remove the garage, pay for the timber they cut and write a plan to reclaim the unauthorized road.

[...] the plan was too broad, covering a 10-year period that would require an environmental analysis, and agency officials told the miners to scale it back.