Getting your player ready...
SALT LAKE CITY—A judge will hear arguments over whether a college student charged with disrupting a federal auction for oil and gas drilling leases near Utah’s national parks can defend himself by claiming he was acting in the interest of the greater good.
Tim DeChristopher says he wanted to protect wild lands in Utah from drilling and call attention to climate change. That would be the so-called lesser-of-two-evils defense.
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to block that defense.
The motion is scheduled to be argued before U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson Friday morning.
DeChristopher has pleaded not guilty to felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction.
