Lawfare Advisory Council Launched to Protect Farmers and Ranchers

AFPI’s Chief Legal Affairs Officer Leigh Ann O’Neill

AFPI’s Director for Rural Policy, Tate Bennett

By Shad Sullivan

As the attack on private property continues to rage across America, a renewed commitment to defend the livelihood of stakeholders in the agriculture sector has sparked a response by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). In addition to the organization’s Farmers First Agenda, rolled out in April of 2025, AFPI launched its Lawfare Advisory Council to bridge the gap between rural America and policymakers and to mitigate abuse by power structures.

Led by AFPI’s Director for Rural Policy, Tate Bennett, and Chief Legal Affairs Officer Leigh Ann O’Neill, the council will identify and review cases in which U.S. farmers and ranchers have been targeted by state and federal agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations and environmental groups, through collusion, weaponization, and abuse of power. The council’s goal is to lead in an advisory role and assess allegations of misconduct while developing solutions on an individual basis. More broadly, the council will push for long term federal reform to protect citizens of rural America from lawfare tactics.

The council team is packed with experience and expertise from the highest levels of government to boots-on-the-ground advocates and food producers. In addition to Bennett and O’Neill, heavy hitters like former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman and country music artist John Rich will lend their expertise and advocacy. Other council members include Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt; former special advisor to President Donald J. Trump Daniel Epstein; Wyoming attorney Sarah Falen Tate; former Department of Justice chief of staff for Environment and Natural Resources Corrine Snow; and consultant, strategist, and criminal justice advocate John Koufos.

The attack on property rights in America has come from many directions in recent decades. Government agencies, private companies, and global corporations have used eminent domain and pay-to-play systems to influence the application of arbitrary rules that regulate land use. This has led to dangerous and excessive criminal and civil charges against farmers, ranchers, and food producers. In addition, the hijacking of congressional environmental acts, interwoven into conservation bribery schemes, has created overzealous and confusing statutes.

For too long, rural communities, especially farmers and ranchers, have been targeted by powerful and often tyrannical powerbrokers who seek to end private property ownership. The launch of AFPI’s Lawfare Advisory Council is confirmation that America’s farmers, ranchers, and food producers have not been forgotten.

Private property is essential to liberty and freedom. It protects individual rights, ensures the distribution of power, and guarantees resource access by the private citizen.

Rural Americans facing risks to their family farms or ranching operations can send concerns to aglawfare@americafirstpolicy.com.

AFPI’s Lawfare Advisory Council outline and founding principles.