A South Dakota family that was staring down the barrel of the Biden administration’s bureaucracy in a dispute that could have sent them to prison can now breathe freely.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rolins announced Monday that criminal charges against the family have been dropped.
As noted by Dakota News Now, ranchers Charles and Heather Maude were facing up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine in a dispute over a fence that had been erected more than 70 years ago and the family’s use of 25 acres of federal land.
“Today, the Trump Administration announced bold action to put farmers and ranchers first by dropping criminal charges against Charles and Heather Maude,” a news release on the Department of Agriculture’s website said.
“The Maudes are not criminals. They have worked their land since the early 1900’s and something that should have been a minor civil land dispute that was over and done with quickly turned into an overzealous criminal prosecution on a hardworking family that was close to losing their home, children, and livelihood. Not in this America, not under President Trump,” Rollins said.
🚨 @SecRollins announces that the Trump administration will be dropping all criminal charges against South Dakota cattle ranchers Charles and Heather Maude, who were prosecuted by the Biden admin for “theft of government property” for a dispute over 25 acres of land. pic.twitter.com/4EZRODB59n
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 30, 2025
Rollins called the Biden administration’s prosecution of the family “a politically motivated witch hunt.”
“Dropping these charges against the Maude family is not only just, it affirms the America First mandate that was sent to Washington when President Trump was overwhelmingly elected and sworn into office just 100 days ago,” Rollins said.
Was this a smart move by the Trump administration?
She said dropping the charges is evidence that “this Administration is fully committed to ending government regulation by prosecution.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that, unlike the Biden administration, the Trump administration only wants to take criminals to court.
“The prior administration’s misguided agenda must be reversed in order to make America safe again. This Department of Justice will spend our resources and efforts on prosecuting criminals, getting drugs off the streets, and identifying and dismantling the weaponization,” she said.
In an Op-Ed in The Wall Street Journal. Rollins wrote that “as agriculture secretary, I have a responsibility to enact the president’s will in policy and practice. And as an American entrusted with the stewardship of governance, I have a responsibility to defend my fellow Americans’ liberties.”
“Under the previous administration, those two imperatives of office directly conflicted, and Biden officials chose the former over the latter. Under President Trump, those two imperatives wholly concur,” she wrote.
“Bureaucratic unaccountability has been a byword in American politics, from lives ruined in the name of public health and lost wars to needless prosecutions and beyond,” Rollins wrote “Not anymore. The only threat to the rule of law in this case is the callous caprice of the bureaucracy itself. In my capacity as agriculture secretary, I refuse to allow it.”
According to a USDA release, Rollins said the Trump administration is making war on cases where the law was turned against innocent families such as the Maudes.
“President Trump is directing his cabinet to ensure no citizen of this country is unfairly targeted on politically motivated witch hunts. That is what happened to the Maudes and I am working to ensure no farmer, rancher or customer who works with USDA will ever endure baseless political persecution,” she said, noting that the USDA has a website for citizens to report unjust prosecution: www.usda.gov/lawfare.
🚨 HUGE WIN FOR THE HEARTLAND!
🇺🇸 @SecRollins and @AGPamBondi just DROPPED the outrageous indictments against South Dakota’s Charles and Heather Maude—hardworking ranchers who’ve poured their blood, sweat, and tears into their family’s century-old ranch near Buffalo Gap… pic.twitter.com/UYin6WzUIh
— Ashley Hayek (@ashleyhayek) April 29, 2025
“I’m so grateful to the Maude family for their strength. I’m so disgusted by the Biden administration that they would do this and persecute a family and [threaten] to take their children away from them just because they wanted to be political,” Homeland Security Secretary and former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said.
“South Dakota’s motto has always been ‘Under God, the people rule.’ The power was given in our Constitution to the people, and that we should always respect that and recognize that many of the wrongs that were done under the last administration can be fixed, and are being fixed every single day because of leaders like Secretary Rollins, and because President Trump is in the White House and he’s bold and he’s fearless and he’s taking action,” she said.
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