One-time Republican Idaho gubernatorial candidate and guy who doesn’t think America’s laws apply to him Ammon Bundy is threatening to let his shotgun do the talkin’ if he’s found liable in a defamation suit filed by an Idaho hospital against him and he’s found liable, The Daily Beast reports.
After rallying fringe far-right anti-government isolationists to defend his family from federal authorities so they wouldn’t have to pay grazing fees on government land, and then having a following killed because he believed federal wildlife refuge in Oregon was illegally seized land by the Executive Branch, why Ammon Bundy is not serving a lengthy prison term is unknown, but in this case Bundy is upset at a local judiciary because he feels he may be wrongly convicted of slandering a local Idaho hospital after a medical professional there reported a member of the Bundy cult known as People’s Rights Network for child endangerment after an infant was found to be dangerously underfed.
St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center in Meridian, Idaho is suing Bundy and People’s Rights Network after they repeatedly claimed the hospital “kidnapped” an infant child of one of the People’s Rights Network members because a doctor at the hospital reported concerns to Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare about the baby’s low weight and its parents were not responding to calls from the hospital and missed an appointment.
After the hospital and DHW set up another appointment with the parent, the parent skipped that one as well, triggering a child welfare alert. Officials caught up to the family during a traffic stop and the underweight baby was taken to the hospital, where it was treated for three days before being returned to the parents. Bundy has said the hospital arranged for the child’s kidnapping, apparently not aware that kidnappers typically does not tell the family where the kidnap victim is and allow the kidnap victim’s family to remain with the kidnap victim, which hospital officials did.
Bundy did not respond to the thought of losing the lawsuit well, telling a local conservative radio show, “They’re suing me for defamation. They’re probably going to try to get judgments of over a million dollars and take everything they have from me. And I’m not going to let that happen. I’m making moves to stop that from happening. And if I have to meet ’em on the front door with my, you know, friends and a shotgun, I’ll do that. They’re not going to take my property.”