A defiant GOP state legislator in Washington State is refusing to resign his seat — even though his fellow Republicans kicked him out of their caucus — in the wake of a report charging that he participated in acts of domestic terrorism.
“Like we are seeing with our President this is a sham investigation meant to silence those of us who stand up against attempts to disarm and destroy our great country,” Rep. Matt Shea wrote on Facebook Thursday.
The charges came in a report prepared by outside investigators hired by the state legislature. Shea, a six-term representative from the Spokane Valley, has been linked to far-right militias and has led an effort to carve off eastern Washington into its own state.
The report accuses Shea of helping to plan the 2016 armed takeover of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge with activist Ammon Bundy, and with participating in two other conflicts against the federal government.
President Trump pardoned the ranchers who sparked the Malheur incident last year. But the state investigators concluded that Shea’s involvement “presented a significant threat of political violence against employees of the Federal Government and state and law enforcement.”
Shea pushed back Saturday on social media.
“I have been labeled a ‘terrorist’ by a private investigator and democrat donor with no basis in law or fact,” he posted to Facebook. “This is a subjective opinion of a paid operative who does not share my political views.”



