Ammon Bundy is a many things to many people.To his supporters and followers, he is a freedom fighting libertarian who stands up to the heavy hand of government.To those he takes issue with, he is a ruthless menace who will harass, defame and pursue until his own version of justice is administered.Bundy is wanted in the state of Idaho following a $53m judgement handed down after a dispute with a local hospital. Now, he's running from the law in Utah.We went to meet him.Source: The Independent
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Most of them had good intentions, but so did Hitler.
00:03That's Ammon Bundy, activist, militant, vlogger
00:06Show me where I lie.
00:08and also one of the most infamous fugitives in America.
00:12Bundy rose to notoriety as the instigator of not one,
00:15but two major armed standoffs with the Feds.
00:18In 2014, Bundy and dozens of supporters faced off against federal agents at his family's Nevada ranch
00:24after authorities came to seize their cattle that had been grazing on public land.
00:28Bundy was the cowboy hat wearing ringleader who got enormous media attention
00:31portraying himself as a symbol of anti-government resistance in the West.
00:35To others, he was a dangerous militant.
00:38Fast forward to 2016.
00:40Bundy led another armed occupation, this time at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon,
00:45demanding that public land be returned to local control.
00:49The standoff lasted 41 days and ended with Bundy spending two years in jail before being acquitted.
00:55And after running for governor in 2022, Bundy has been back in the headlines again.
01:00In Idaho, he led a harassment campaign against a hospital and its staff.
01:04That resulted in a judgment of more than 50 million dollars.
01:08And a warrant is currently out for his arrest.
01:12I'm in southern Utah, around three hours south of Salt Lake City, on my way to meet Ammon Bundy.
01:18There are several different versions of who he is, depending on who you ask.
01:23To some people, he is this folkloric freedom fighter, a protector of his people, of his land.
01:29He is an anti-government activist, an anti-fascist, an anti-terrorist.
01:34He is a pro-government activist, a pro-government activist, a pro-government activist.
01:39To other people, he's a menace. To the people in that hospital, he was a menace, he was a danger.
01:50Bundy is still a wanted man in the state of Idaho.
01:52So before meeting with him,
01:54I wanted to check in with the police department that issued the warrant.
02:09And I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
02:13Hey, my name is Richard Hall. I'm a journalist with The Independent.
02:15I'm just calling to ask for some information about the status of Ammon Bundy's arrest warrant.
02:25I'm going to leave my number.
02:28He's on the run right now.
02:30Technically, he's a fugitive and he hasn't gone into hiding, which is the interesting thing.
02:34He's just come back to where he feels comfortable.
02:36One of the things I'm curious about is why he chose here
02:39and what he plans to do when eventually the law does catch up to him.
02:47Amazon packages, huh?
02:56We build exhaust brakes here.
02:58You know, they're for diesel trucks.
03:00We chat while he works.
03:01Bundy, a Mormon, is married with six kids, three boys and three girls.
03:06He grew up as one of 14 children, heavily influenced by his father,
03:10Cliven, whose ranch was at the center of the first standoff.
03:13The Bundys first came to this very area in the 1800s, right?
03:18Not the Bundys. It's actually on my grandmother's side.
03:21My family established that area in 1877.
03:24They would have been among the first people coming to this area.
03:27They were the first people that came.
03:28Did you have strong views about the government's role in people's lives?
03:35In 2014, it was a culmination of, like, 30 years of battle, you know?
03:40Legal battles and stuff.
03:42I didn't know the whole government was so corrupt.
03:46They were trying to set up a prosecution against us before we had even done anything.
03:51He tells his side of the story from the two-armed standoffs in Nevada and Oregon
03:55that made him a national figure, the second of which left one person dead, killed by police.
04:00And once the work is done, he agrees to sit down with me
04:03so I can ask him the one question that everyone wants answered.
04:07Why haven't you been arrested yet, do you think?
04:09I mean, this warrant is there.
04:10Usually, it's a pretty straightforward process, isn't it?
04:12Why haven't they come to take you away?
04:14Utah was really good to us over the whole, you know, Bundy Ranch thing.
04:18A lot of people from this area came and supported us down there.
04:22You know, I got a text actually earlier, I had to go get it.
04:24It's from a local reporter here.
04:26I'm just going to read you what she said.
04:28I think your family will continue to thrive here.
04:31I know the sheriff has pretty much told his guys to stand down on your warrants.
04:38Okay, I'm going to pause for a second here.
04:40I reached out to the sheriff's office in Cedar City
04:42to ask if what the reporter said was true.
04:44They did not respond.
04:46Back to Bundy.
04:47I have never, like, stolen anything, damaged anything, hurt anybody.
04:56That's a claim that Bundy's critics would take issue with.
04:59The case he fled began with a sick baby in Idaho
05:02that Bundy used to kick-start a war about parental rights.
05:06The baby, the grandchild of one of his associates,
05:09was severely malnourished and unwell when its parents missed an appointment with doctors.
05:14Medical staff referred the case to Child Protective Services
05:17and police took the baby from its parents to St. Luke's Hospital in Idaho for urgent treatment.
05:22Furious at this government intervention,
05:24Bundy led protests at the hospital and homes of the staff.
05:28A jury ordered him and his associates to pay $53 million
05:33after the hospital won a defamation lawsuit.
05:35Bundy skipped court and eventually skipped town.
05:38If you could go back and do it differently now, would you change anything?
05:42No, we were completely peaceful.
05:43Eric Stidham, the lawyer who represented St. Luke's Hospital at Bundy's trial, says otherwise.
05:49I called him to talk through how Bundy summoning his supporters to the hospital
05:53resulted in sick patients unable to go to the ER.
05:57Mr. Bundy went there immediately after the infant had been taken there
06:00and he and a crowd of followers immediately showed up,
06:03started filming themselves and broadcasting on social media.
06:06And Mr. Bundy, playing for the cameras, began to rant and talk about breaching the hospital
06:12and demanding the baby back and all sorts of things along these lines.
06:16That resulted in that emergency room having to shut down for a couple of hours
06:20because of the threat of breach.
06:22Do you accept that some people might have been hurt along the way?
06:25Yeah, I mean, there's, that's going to happen.
06:28You know, like, for example, the doctor who first saw baby Cyrus
06:32when they took him to St. Luke's Hospital.
06:34You know, she's this young doctor.
06:36She's probably thinking she's going to do the best she can, whatever.
06:40She probably loves kids.
06:41But she threatened CPS on this family that did nothing wrong.
06:45Well, I'm speaking out against that.
06:48Well, do you think that affects her?
06:50Yeah, that affects her.
06:51So yeah, people get hurt along the way.
06:54You have to do that.
06:56Not everyone would agree.
06:57The 10-month-old baby was diagnosed with severe malnutrition and dehydration
07:02that could have been fatal.
07:03Hospital staff said they were just trying to save the baby's life.
07:07Bundy responded by appealing to his thousands of supporters
07:10to harass those health care workers, arguing that the baby was kidnapped.
07:13We had testimony regarding the nurse practitioner and doctor at trial.
07:19And they testified about the trauma that they and their families experienced
07:24because of this.
07:25We had a forensic psychologist come on who had spent time with them.
07:29She testified to the trauma and the post-traumatic stress
07:34that they were experiencing.
07:35And then you had all these other folks who were not plaintiffs,
07:39including a doctor who was at that original emergency room
07:42and really was a hero for what she did.
07:45Mr. Bundy was outside and saving that baby.
07:47She was harassed so mercilessly that she ended up leaving the country.
07:51I suggest to Bundy that the doctor and others involved in the child's treatment
07:55were just trying to do what they thought was best for a sick baby.
07:59Absolutely.
08:00I think most of them were, you know, had good intentions.
08:05They really believed, but so did Hitler.
08:12So what's your reaction to that statement?
08:14That's in keeping with what we learned in this case
08:16when we spent a lot of time with the extremist experts
08:19who were following Mr. Bundy.
08:21They do go through a process of othering.
08:24Sometimes that is to make false claims of pedophilia.
08:27They would, using terms like wicked,
08:30all of which internally to the group helped identify this as an enemy.
08:34When Mr. Bundy's talking in those terms,
08:37it reflects the underlying, his philosophy
08:40and what was reflected in the groups he controlled,
08:43that there was this other, the state or others complicit with the state
08:47who was transgressing on what they had determined to be the moral right
08:51and that the consequences to them were not significant.
08:58Bundy has no regrets to this day.
09:01He sees himself as a guard against government overreach, even tyranny.
09:06If you don't have a right to decide how you're going to raise your children,
09:12the medical care your children are going to receive,
09:15the schools your children are going to go to,
09:18what clothes you're going to, you know, and food you're going to feed your children.
09:22I mean, then you've lost one of your most important fundamental rights.
09:27And that's what this was about.
09:29It's about fascism, government and corporations, you know,
09:33coming together and restricting rights, infringing rights,
09:37and saying basically, well, we have a right to take your kid whenever we decide.
09:42And I fundamentally am against that.
09:44Like in every way, I don't agree.
09:48I've grown to recognize that I have this kind of innate,
09:53this nature to try to defend people that need help, need help defending.
10:00Now, having fled Idaho with his wife and children, he considers the matter closed.
10:05I'm here in another state, clear outside of the jurisdiction there.
10:10I came here, I'm not asking for anything.
10:12I mean, look at the extremes I've went.
10:14I left my house.
10:16I displaced my entire family into another state.
10:18I planned on being there my entire life.
10:21But I left it for peace.
10:23And I hope they don't continue to pursue and to pursue and to pursue.
10:28Because I really don't want to leave the United States.
10:30And I really don't want to make like have to stop and make a stand.
10:35That sounds like a veiled threat of another standoff from Amin Bandy.
10:39He seems to think that moving to another state
10:42should wipe the slate clean for his actions in Idaho.
10:44For now, the local cops appear to be leaving him alone.
10:48My emails and phone calls to the sheriff's office here in Cedar City
10:52and in Idaho have gone unanswered.
10:55But just because Bundy wants it to be over doesn't mean it is.
10:59He declared bankruptcy earlier this year,
11:01but a Utah judge ruled that he has to comply with requests
11:04from some loops for more information about his finances.
11:08It's a showdown playing out in slow motion.
11:11One that may never end.