After losing his Idaho home and falling off the radar for weeks, militia leader Ammon Bundy has popped his head up to issue thinly veiled threats against those he blames for losing a massive defamation lawsuit.
Bundy, an anti-government agitator who gained notoriety after standoffs with law enforcement, was ordered to pay more than $50 million to St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center after a judge ruled he defamed the hospital.
In a rambling YouTube livestream this week, Bundy claimed St. Luke’s “took all the money out of my wife’s account” as well as his son’s as part of the collection process.
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He repeatedly singled out Chris Roth, the CEO of St. Luke’s Health System, suggesting Roth was part of a nefarious plot against him.
“I’m doing everything I can not to just retaliate against these people. I have been so peaceful. And they keep pushing me, and pushing me, and pushing me. You know, wanting me to do something so that they can arrest me and put me in prison or kill me. That’s what they’re trying to do,” he said.
“I’m almost about ready to say, you know, all those people I’ve said ‘don’t do anything to these people… don’t do anything, it’s not right to retaliate.’ I’m almost ready to say, ‘You know what? The hell with it,’” he said.
In the same breath, Bundy appeared to confuse his son’s age: “He’s 20 years old, 20 years old uh or is he 19, he’s 19, he’s 19 years old, he’s not 20 yet, he’s 19 years old,” adding that he “worked his butt off to so he could pay for his mission and they just steal it.”
Bundy took aim at conservatives and the Freedom Movement—both of which had derided Bundy for leaving the state, he said—along with bank tellers, a “wicked” judge, a local sheriff and his deputies all of whom worked against Bundy after he was found to be at fault.
“The Freedom Movement want to condemn me for leaving Idaho but the problem is I could not find people who would stand and stop what was happening to my family and the same goes with you know the sheriff,” he said.
Bundy also railed against bank tellers and others he said had complied with orders from the judge who oversaw his defamation trial.
“As soon as some wicked judge, under the hands of some wicked attorneys, as soon as they say ‘hey give us that person’s property and that person’s money’ they just give it to them,” Bundy said. “This is the situation we’re in: no one will fight for anybody else, that’s why I had to leave Idaho.”
Just weeks earlier a judge in the state issued a warrant for Bundy’s arrest after he failed to make a court appearance.
Bundy said he’s acted with restraint in his dealings with the courts and the medical center, but is weighing whether he should change that approach.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do about dealing with thieves that take life, liberty, and property.”
