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Ammon Bundy, a far-right anti-government activist who gained notoriety after staging armed standoffs with federal law enforcement in 2014 and 2016, was arrested at his son’s football banquet in Idaho on Friday, August 11, 2023. The arrest, captured in a viral video and shared on Bundy’s account on X (formerly Twitter), showed him being led away in handcuffs.
The arrest stemmed from an outstanding warrant from a defamation lawsuit against Bundy. The lawsuit was filed after he accused Idaho’s largest hospital network St. Luke of kidnapping the grandson of an associate and running a “child trafficking ring.”
Bundy blatantly ignored the lawsuit and urged his followers to camp outside his house to block officials from delivering the legal summons. Consequently, last month, the jury found Bundy guilty by default and ordered him to pay $26 million, part of an overall $52 million ruling against him and other defendants. In addition, a judge issued a contempt of court charge against the Idaho rancher for failing to appear in court.
On Friday, Bundy was arrested at his son’s football banquet in Emmett High School over the outstanding warrant and booked into Gem County Jail on a $10,000 bond.
Ammon Bundy urged people to protest his detainment in a video on X, formerly known as Twitter
In an arrest video posted to social media last week, Ammon Bundy’s team urged people to start making calls to protest what they deemed as constant harassment and the arrest of a “wonderful man.”
"Ammon was arrested this evening at his son's football banquet. Gather at the Gem County Sheriff's office in Emmett if you can! We believe he is at the Gem County Jail. Please, if you can’t make it, start making calls complaining about this continued harassment of such a wonderful man. Thank you."
The arrest came in the wake of Bundy posting another video last week where he denied any wrongdoing while repeating defamatory statements against the hospital and its employees. In a video posted before his arrest on Friday, Bundy stated that he had been actively avoiding the warrants since he was not liable in the case.
“This idea that I am just holed up in my house and hiding behind a window sill with an AK-47 is just another great lie from our wonderful media. So, I just wanted to dispel that.”
Bundy had previously accused the St Luke’s of abducting the grandson of an associate Diego Rodriguez. Per multiple reports, the child was reportedly being held at the hospital over a child protection case after hospital staff discovered that the 10-month-old baby’s stomach was distended, reminding them of severely malnourished babies.
However, Ammon Bundy and Rodriguez called on people to protest the child’s hospitalization, alleging the baby was healthy except for suffering from cyclic vomiting syndrome, where he was unable to keep anything down.
Bundy and Rodriguez claimed the hospital kept the 10-month-old hostage for their child trafficking ring. They urged people to protest, resulting in a lockdown and threatening calls into the hospital’s switchboard.
St. Luke’s Regional Health then sued Ammon Bundy over the defamatory statements and won the lawsuit by default after he failed to turn up to court or respond to the legal summons.
In the wake of the arrest, Ammon Bundy's supporters gathered outside the county jail, urging his release after he called people to protest the detainment. Meanwhile, in a new video posted on Sunday, August 13, Bundy said he was out of jail on a $10,000 bond while reiterating the defamatory statements against the hospital.
