Domestic terrorism exists and it is best to be forewarned.

David Gutman and Jim Brunner at Seattle Times: 

State Rep. Matt Shea planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States before and during the armed takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an investigation commissioned by the Washington state House found.

The 108-page report found that beginning in November 2015, Shea, working with militia leader Ammon Bundy, helped “in the planning and preparation” of the Malheur takeover, a six-week conflict in which dozens of armed protesters occupied the refuge in rural Eastern Oregon. The standoff ended after one protester was shot and killed and dozens were arrested.

“Representative Shea, as a leader in the Patriot Movement, planned, engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government in three states outside the state of Washington over a three-year period,” according to the report released Thursday. “In one conflict Representative Shea led covert strategic pre-planning in advance of the conflict.”

Immediately after the report was released, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican minority leader of the House, said Shea “has been suspended from any role in the House Republican Caucus.”

“He should resign,” Wilcox wrote on Twitter. “He cannot use House Republican staff, he cannot meet with the caucus, his office will be moved.” Shea’s name and picture were removed from the House GOP website.

Shea said he would not step down, calling the investigation a “sham.”

“I will not back down, I will not give in, I will not resign,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook Thursday night. “Stand strong fellow Patriots.”

The report concluded that Shea, a Spokane Valley Republican first elected in 2008, is closely associated with several armed militias and uses his prominence in the Patriot Movement to dispatch militia members to conflicts with government officials. The Patriot Movement is a loose organization of conservative groups and individuals in mostly rural areas that includes organized militia members and so-called sovereign citizens, who are generally united by deep suspicion and fear of the federal government.

The movement grew after standoffs at Ruby Ridge in Idaho and Waco, Texas, in the 1990s; the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out by Patriot Movement members.

Shea, 45, also traveled to an armed standoff in 2014 in Bunkerville, Nevada, and “publicly supported” the armed militia’s standoff involving rancher Cliven Bundy, and engaged in a 2015 armed conflict in Bonner County, Idaho, the report found.

The report has been forwarded to the FBI and to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said incoming Democratic House Speaker Laurie Jinkins.

“This is about a state lawmaker who, according to the investigative findings, engaged in an act of domestic terrorism rather than choosing political or legal avenues to change laws and policies he disagrees with,” Jinkins said. “This is why we believe formal action needs to be taken that sends a clear message upholding the values of a free and democratic society, and supports the safety of all Washingtonians.”