Far-right activist Ammon Bundy claims his family’s bank accounts have been raided after he was ordered by a court to pay $50 million in damages to an Idaho hospital he accused of child trafficking.
Bundy accused St. Luke’s Regional Health and Clarity Credit Union of accessing accounts where his family’s money was kept and withdrawing funds just days before Christmas.
The extremist had been ordered to pay money to the hospital after he lost a defamation lawsuit against them in July.
Bundy, in a rambling 12-minute video on YouTube, singled out senior Boise hospital staff members CEO Chris Roth, pediatrician Natasha Erickson and nurse practitioner Tracy Jungman.
‘These people are I mean. Just a few days before Christmas they garnish our bank account,’ Bundy alleged.
‘Clarity Credit Union just allowed them to do this and just goes along with it. This is just modern-day theft.
Ammon Bundy, who gained notoriety after standoffs with law enforcement, was ordered to pay over $50 million to St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center. He claims his wife’s and son’s accounts are now empty after money was alleged drained just days before Christmas
Bundy laid the blame with senior staff members at the Boise, Idaho hospital
‘Clarity is part of this too. They know what’s right and wrong we’ve had many good discussions with the branch managers and they know exactly what’s going.
‘They know that this whole thing about St Luke’s is such a wicked thing and what they’re doing to my family is a wicked thing.’
The lawsuit brought by St. Luke’s Regional Health accused Bundy and Diego Rodriguez of making defamatory statements against the hospital and its employees after Rodriguez’s infant grandson was removed from his family for several days and taken to St. Luke’s amid concerns for his health.
The emergency room physician, Dr. Rachel Thomas, testified that the 10-month-old baby’s stomach was distended, his eyes were hollow and he was unable to sit up, reminding her of severely malnourished babies she had treated in Haiti.
Police said at the time that medical personnel determined the child was malnourished and had lost weight.
The far-right activist responded by urging his followers to protest at the hospital and at the homes of child protection service workers, law enforcement officers and others involved in the child protection case.
Rodriguez wrote on his website that the baby was ‘kidnapped,’ and suggested that the state and people involved in the case were engaged in ‘child trafficking’ for profit.
Bundy – who didn’t attend the trial nor hire a lawyer, saying it would be too costly – denied the baby was mistreated and said law enforcement and hospital staff put him at risk by removing him from his mother.
The baby was healthy except for suffering from cyclic vomiting syndrome, Bundy said, unable to keep anything except his mother’s breast milk down.
The hospital claimed Bundy and Rodriguez orchestrated a smear campaign against it.
In July, a jury at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise agreed, awarding damages exceeding $50 million.
A statement on behalf of the law firm representing the plaintiffs said Bundy, Rodriguez and their supporters had surrounded St. Luke´s hospital campuses in Meridian and Boise, forcing lockdowns and causing diversion of emergency patients, disruption of planned procedures and cancelation of hundreds of appointments.
‘The jury´s decision imposes accountability for the ongoing campaign of intimidation, harassment and disinformation these defendants have conducted,’ St. Luke’s said in a statement.
‘It also affirms the importance of protecting health care providers and other public servants from attacks intended to prevent them from carrying out their responsibilities.’
Bundy, in a rambling 12-minute video on YouTube , singled out senior Boise hospital staff members CEO Chris Roth, pediatrician Natasha Erickson and nurse practitioner Tracy Jungman
Bundy claimed alleged actions taken by Clarity Credit Union, where his family’s money was being kept, were ‘wicked’
Soon after the trial Bundy said he was innocent and called the civil trial ‘illegitimate.’
‘I’ve been a thorn in the side of the establishment here in Idaho for quite a while and this is their mechanism to try to destroy me,’ Bundy said, adding that he didn’t have funds to pay the damages.
But if Bundy’s claims are to be believed, the hospital and credit union now appear to have taken steps to retrieve whatever funds they can.
‘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 and this is the situation we’re in,’ Bundy said.
Bundy then revealed he had fled Idaho after losing support in the community.
‘No one will fight for anybody else. That’s why I had to leave Idaho people,’ he said.
‘Even 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.
‘The same goes with the sheriff and his deputies. They’re just elated to take this stuff from me.
Bundy claimed his teenage son’s bank account was also emptied.
‘My son is 19-years-old. He worked his butt off. He’s on a mission right now for the Church of Jesus Christ for Latterday Saints and that’s his mission money he earned,’ Bundy said.
‘Now what am I supposed to do?’ he asked his followers.
‘I mean I want to just go fighting. You can’t fight in the corrupt courts. I want to just go to their house and I want to demand that they give it back to my son, that they had no right to take it.’
Bundy is pictured during his arrest at the Idaho Statehouse in Boise, Idaho in August 2020
Bundy being taken to a patrol car following his August 2020 arrest for trespassing at the state Capitol to protest against COVID-19 restrictions
The jury’s verdict required Bundy to pay the plaintiffs $6.2 million in compensatory damages and $6.15 million in punitive damages and Rodriguez to pay $7 million in compensatory damages and $6.5 million in punitive damages.
The remainder of the total $52.5 million in damages was assessed to the People’s Rights Network, Freedom Man Press and the Bundy campaign for governor.
‘If you have a Clarity Credit Union account you need to take it out and you need to put it somewhere else because it’s not safe in their accounts no one will fight for your money,’ Bundy urged in his video message.
‘They are modern-day criminals and that’s what they do they take life they take liberty and they take property and if you think you’re going to get out of it, if you think somehow you could just stick your head in the sand you’re fooling yourself, he went on.
‘Do not go to St Luke’s Health System. Do not fund this this wicked monster. St Luke’s is one hospital out of only 13 hospitals that are willing to do transgender surgeries on minors. That means they’re willing to cut the genitals off of a young boy who’s who 10 and try to make him into a girl.
‘We’re dealing with wicked, wicked people,’ he added.
Bundy and his People’s Rights Network have in the past carried out protests at the Idaho Statehouse over coronavirus-related measures. He was temporarily banned from the government building in 2020.
Bundy announced a failed bid to be governor of Idaho in June 2021
In 2016, Bundy led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, to protest the arson convictions of two ranchers who set fires on federal land where they had been grazing their cattle. He is pictured in 2016
In 2016, Bundy led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, to protest the arson convictions of two ranchers who set fires on federal land where they had been grazing their cattle. Bundy was acquitted of criminal charges in the matter.
The hospital’s lawsuit was filed more than a year ago.
Since then, Bundy ignored court orders related to the lawsuit, filed trespassing complaints against people hired to deliver legal paperwork and called on scores of his followers to camp at his home for protection when he learned he might be arrested on a warrant for a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court.
‘I could just see Chris Roth CEO of St Luke’s now he’s got a little extra cash in his pocket now. I mean what does he need my wife’s cash for? What does he need my son’s hard-earned money for?’ Bundy asked in his weekend message.
‘They’re just doing it because they’re wicked and they want to hurt me.
‘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 the they can arrest me and put me in prison or kill me. That’s what they’re trying to do.’