JOHN DAY – The Blue Mountain Eagle is attempting to verify a Paul Mullet sighting after a southwestern Washington newspaper reported that the Aryan Nations leader talked about buying land there.

The Chinook Observer reported that a man believed to be Mullet appeared at a public meeting Tuesday night in Long Beach, but there was no confirmation that it was him as of Wednesday afternoon.

A photo published with the story said it showed Mullet at the meeting, but the man did not look like Mullet as he appeared last February in John Day, according to Eagle staffers.

The Observer posted its article after a landowner, disgruntled with the county’s demands to spray invasive weeds on private land, threatened to sell her property to the Aryan Nations. A man who was assumed to be Mullet, but who did not identify himself, spoke at a public meeting Tuesday night and urged the county to keep spraying so he could buy the land for his organization.

Mullet has not returned a message left on his cell phone about whether he attended the Washington meeting.

The Eagle will follow the story and post updates as they become available.