Anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy hinted at retaliation against the “wicked, wicked people” who took his family’s money after he lost a $52.5 million defamation suit against an Idaho hospital.
Bundy is known for leading the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, and for his 2022 Idaho gubernatorial campaign. He believes “that individuals have the right to complete and total control over their life and their property,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
St. Luke’s Regional Health in Boise, ID, sued Bundy and his associate Diego Rodriguez for defaming the hospital after Rodriguez’s infant grandson was removed from the family on suspicion of malnourishment. Rodriguez claimed the baby was “kidnapped” by people engaged in “child trafficking,” while Bundy urged his followers to protest at the hospital and the homes of child protective service employees.
Bundy was ordered to pay the plaintiffs $6.2 million in compensatory damages and $6.15 million in punitive damages, while Rodriguez owed $7 million in compensatory damages and $6.5 million in punitive damages. The remainder of the money was ordered to come from Bundy’s far-right organizations: the People’s Rights Network, Freedom Man Press, and the Bundy campaign for governor.
On a rambling