Come no more upon me, a warning letter from Ammon Bundy

Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2023

From: Ammon Bundy

To: Blake Higley; Scott Bedke; Whitney Welsh; Chris Roth; Anne McDevitt; Erik Stidham; Brad Little; Chris Topmiller; Keith Reynolds;

RE: Warning

I Ammon Bundy respectfully come seeking relief that my family and I may live in peace and not be harassed at your hands anymore.  

As much as it pains me to do so, it is my duty to plead my case to you in why I have acted the way I have over the past few years. I pray that you will understand my intentions and see how my actions have been based in love for God and my fellow man, including yourself. 

In February of 2020 I made a vow that I would not live or allow my family and friends to be compelled to live under the delusional control of tyrants pushing lockdown mandates using health orders as the excuse. I made this vow immediately after becoming aware of what officials in the state of California were doing to the people in that area. I had hoped that the same type of action would not come to Idaho, but my hopes were in vain, as in mid-March of 2020, Brad Little, Governor of Idaho, issued a statewide stay-home-order, much like California’s Governor Gavin Newsom did earlier that month.

Knowing very well that no state or other official has been granted the authority to order my friends, family or I to remain in our homes until we have their permission to leave. Knowing that no man or group of people have the right to order other men or women to stop trading with each other in an effort to provide for their families. Knowing that no man or group of people have the right to order other men or women not to visit and care for each other. Knowing that state officials have only been granted authority enumerated in the state and United States Constitutions. Knowing above all things that the right to travel, the right to visit with and care for each other, the right to leave our homes at will, the right to trade and provide for our families are endowed by God the Almighty Creator to each of His children residing upon this earth, and that no government official has the authority to alienate these rights from His children unless in defense of their own rights. 

Knowing these things, I began to act openly in peaceful defiance of the immoral and unconstitutional usurpations coming from government officials within the state of Idaho. Holding regular public meetings, an Easter service, peacefully protesting at a Meridian police officer’s home for arresting a mother who took her children to the park and organizing people to peacefully stand for the rights that God had given them. Never once did I damage any property, commit any violence or harm any person. It is not in my nature to do so. 

However, these simple peaceful acts of non-compliance caused heads of several government agencies to communicate with each other about what should be done with Ammon Bundy. In one email chain between the head of the Idaho State Police, Colonel Kendrick Wills, Meridian Police Chief, Meridian Mayor, Robert Simison, the FBI JTTF (Joint Terrorist Task Force), Ada County Sheriff, Steve Bartlett, and several other heads of government agencies and offices in Idaho, all discussed to potentially raid the Easter service I had planned and mass arrest those attending. Imagine, in the United State of America, in the State of Idaho, heads of law enforcement and other officials plotting to raid a Christian worship service on Easter. And doing so because those assembling to worship God did not have permission from government officials to do so. Ultimately, these officials decided not to move forward with the raid and mass arrests because the Easter service was held in Gem County on private property. It is my belief that the Gem County Sheriff and Emmett Mayor did not support the action so they did not move forward with the raid. 

In August 2020, Governor Little called for a special legislative session to gain legal immunity for the action of state officials during the lock-down orders. When the session began, hundreds of people came to the Idaho capitol building to attend. However, Scott Bedke, Speaker of the House, ordered the House gallery doors to be locked, guarded by Idaho State Police Troopers; stopping hundreds of people from legally attending the session. This caused many people to become very upset and eventually we pushed our way through the locked doors. I must mention that Idaho State law prohibits the doors to the House or Senate galleries from being locked at any-time during a regular or special session. Regardless, this law did not seem to matter to Speaker Scott Bedke or to the Idaho State Police Troopers. In-fact, instead of apologizing to the people for illegally blocking the doors, the next day, nearly half of the all the ISP Troopers in Idaho were ordered to report for duty at the capitol building. That afternoon an incident with the independent media was fabricated and I was arrested. My crime was sitting quietly and non disruptive in a public room in the Idaho capitol building (the Lincoln auditorium), during open hours, where no proceedings were taking place. The Lincoln auditorium doors were always open to the public until 7 PM each day. However, that day, at 5 PM, over 60 police officers entered the room and area and ordered me to leave. When I did not leave immediately, I was arrested and trespassed from the capitol building for a year. During my trial, over a year later, multiple police officers testified that I was “not being disruptive and had broken no rules” (please watch this video).

I do admit, at this point I became somewhat irrational. For I believed that I had a right to go into the Idaho capitol building and participate in the legislative process. I believed that the capitol building belonged to the people and not the government. I believed that somehow the people were going to make a difference in the capitol building and that I was to help motivate and unite them. And, I believe that I was targeted and falsely arrested so I could not influence the legislators or the people during that and the following sessions. Ultimately, I was arrested 3 more times for going back to the capitol building to attend legislative proceedings. Each time I was thrown in jail and sorely abused under the hand of the Ada County jailers.

To make matters worse, when I showed up to my first trespass trial, I was not allowed in the Ada County Courthouse because I would not wear a mask. After many attempts to get permission to go into the courthouse to attend my own trial, over a dozen Ada County Sheriff deputies exited the courthouse and arrested me for Failure to Appear (FTA) to my trial. On this occasion I spent 32 hours in an extremely cold holding cell in the Ada County Jail. The jailers refer to this cell as “the cold box”. It was very miserable and cruel. 

For the next year and a half, I spent much of my life litigating these cases. Never once had I damaged any property, committed any violence or harmed any person. Yet, I was viciously prosecuted at the hands of a team of Ada County Attorneys. In the middle of these trials, I was also sentenced to 10 days in jail and fined $3,000 (the maximum sentence possible) for Contempt of Court (COC). Judge Annie McDevitt disagreed with me in using campaign service hours for public service time. So, with no opportunity to redo the hours and with no jury involved, she threw the book at me and I spent 10 more days in solitary confinement in the Ada County Jail. I am sure to this day she believes that I deserve such a harsh punishment, but even my critics vocalized their surprise at her extreme and unusual sentence. 

In early March of 2022, I received a call from my friend’s daughter Marissa Anderson. She was surrounded by police officers threatening to take her baby away. The Chavoya family are good friends of my family and we have spent much time together. They are one of the most loving, caring and politically active families that I know. The love and care they display to each other and to their friends is inspiring to all those who know them. Marissa’s father Diego and I, during 2020, became two of the most public figures in Idaho speaking out against the governor’s lockdown orders. Especially against the massive federal funds that were being distributed into Idaho institutions due to Governor Little keeping Idahoans under executive emergency powers for over 2 years.  

So, after participating in much public scrutiny against the most powerful people in Idaho, police officers surrounded Diego’s family and forcefully took his grandson under a false pretense of child neglect. Eventually, the accusations against the family were all proven to be absolutely false. Over time, the state had to give baby Cyrus back, drop the CPS case all together and dismiss the criminal charges against Marissa the mother and Miranda the aunt. However, I do not find it a coincidence that St. Luke’s Hospital, the #1 PRIVATE beneficiary of the federal COVID funds coming through Governor Little and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW), the #1 PUBLIC beneficiary of the COVID funds, are the two institutions that carried out the assault against the Chavoya family, who happens to also be some of my best friends. They did so by falsely reporting baby Cyrus’ condition and sending the police after them.  

That night, being extremely concerned for baby Cyrus, the family and the entire injustice of the situation, I showed up at St. Luke’s Hospital where baby Cyrus was taken, demanding that he be given back to his family. After many demands, Meridian Police Officers arrested me and took me to the Ada County Jail. I must say, even though the Meridian Police Officers were completely in the wrong and acted to enforce the will of people grossly abusing the law, they were also lied to by officials from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (CPS). They were told that baby Cyrus was Failing to Thrive (FTT) and that he must be taken to the hospital for immediate care. 

However, the evidence tells an entirely different story. Baby Cyrus was not taken to the hospital for care, he was forcefully taken from his parents and brought to the hospital to be immediately given to foster parents. Yes, this is correct, waiting there patiently in Meridian St. Luke Hospital were baby Cyrus’ new foster parent(s). Baby Cyrus was deemed “a healthy baby” by the medical staff who told the foster parent(s) to “leave promptly”. However, because of the commotion that I and those with me were causing outside the hospital by peacefully demanding Cyrus be given back to his parents, the foster parents had lost their will to take the baby and therefore Cyrus was transferred to Boise St. Luke’s Hospital instead.

Read these hospital reports from that night:   

“Health and welfare identified a foster family but due to protesters surrounding the hospital regarding this case, it was felt that discharge with the family foster family from the emergency department was unsafe for all involved.”

“The sending physician handed us the pt [i.e. patient] secured in his car seat. She indicated the patient was in stable condition and requested that we leave promptly. She stated, “just go! This is a healthy baby with no interventions”…no acute life threats noted.” 

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (CPS) mis-represented the truth about baby Cyrus, causing this entire situation. Baby Cyrus was and has always been cared for and loved to the extreme by his parents and family. His mother was breastfeeding and he had been thriving since birth, even though recently he was not reacting well to solid foods (not atypical for his age). CPS with the help of Meridian Police Officers took Cyrus away from his main source of nutrition (his mother), which was very concerning to many people, including myself. I felt I had the ability to bring attention to the matter and did so at the hospital by demanding that baby Cyrus be returned to his nursing mother. 

Because of this incident, I and my family have once again suffered under the hands of Ada County Prosecutors for an additional year. The CPS case against baby Cyrus’ parents was dropped, the criminal case against baby Cyrus’ aunt was dismissed, the criminal case against baby Cyrus’ mother was dropped, but the case against me continues to go on and is scheduled for trial this month. If convicted, I face heavy fines and up to 1 year in jail. The Ada County Chief Judge, in the middle of these proceedings, reassigned my case to Judge Annie McDevitt, the same judge who already threw the book at me once and sentenced me to 10 days in jail and a $3000 fine. Normally, Contempt of Court (COC) is a fine of a few hundred dollars with no jail time. So, it doesn’t take legal training to understand what she will try and do to me if I am convicted this time for helping baby Cyrus and his family.  

It took about 6 days to get baby Cyrus back to his parents. The people at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (CPS) and Judge Laurie Fortier did not like the public scrutiny they were receiving and gave baby Cyrus back after about a week of hundreds of people protesting at St Luke’s Hospital, the CPS office and the Judge’s home. A few weeks later, St. Luke’s Hospital sued Diego Rodriguez (Cyrus’ grandfather) and myself for saying negative things about them. They retained Holland & Hart, LLP a law firm that also represents Governor Brad Little, Scott Bedke and the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare. 

Each week, going on 5 months now, Diego and I have received mountains of court documents. Holland & Hart is sending documents to my business, home and associates, by personal service companies, Gem County Sheriff’s deputies, US Postal Service, Fed-Ex and UPS. Some documents are too big to print so they send electronic files in packages to contain it all. Without exaggerating, I could have filled up a garbage dumpster to contain the amount of legal documents I have received from Holland & Hart. After speaking to an Idaho law firm (in hopes to defend myself) I was told that it would take at least 3 full time attorneys to respond to Holland & Hart’s litigation on this case. Because this case may continue for several years, it is not impractical to calculate that it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to properly defend against the onslaught of litigation paid for by donations given to St. Luke’s Hospital. 

I was informed by two very creditable, independent sources (one a high-ranking Ada County Official and the other an attorney who works with St. Luke’s hospital) that St. Luke’s CEO gave Holland & Hart a blank check to financially destroy Diego and I for speaking out against them in the role they played in taking baby Cyrus. So, rather than taking action to ensure that the situation with baby Cyrus does not happen again, instead, St Luke’s CEO, Chris Roth, has authorized hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations given to St. Luke’s Hospital to pay a law firm to financially destroy baby Cyrus’ family and those who stood with them. I don’t believe this is why people donate to St. Luke’s Hospital. I believe those who donate to St. Luke’s Hospital are under the impression that their donations are going to medically help children and other patients, not to fund a team of $600 per hour bureaucrat attorneys sent to even a political score.

To date, St Luke’s team of attorneys have used the courts to put a lien on my home, forcing me to sell it. I have been forced to liquidate all my assets except a few and my family and I have no idea when any of this will end. St. Luke’s CEO, Chris Roth, has given Holland & Hart a blank check to financially destroy Diego and I. Mis-using the courts, they have put us under constant threat of losing everything we have worked for our entire lives. Never once have I knowingly stepped inside a St. Luke’s medical facility in Idaho. Never have I or my family received any medical treatment from a St. Luke’s provider. I owe them nothing, yet they are trying to take everything. Anything I said about them (which was very minimal) I believe to be absolutely true, but they are using the courts to chill free speech and punish anyone who exposes them to the public. All of this, when they are the people who participated in stealing a baby from loving parents. Holland & Hart receiving open payments from St. Luke’s Hospital to destroy lives by abusing the court is a prime example of Judicial Terrorism (JT). 

In the last few years, I have been criminally charged many times for defending what the Idaho State and U.S. Constitutions were designed to protect. I have had so many court hearings that I have lost track of the number. I have endured multiple trials and spent weeks in solitary confinement in the Ada County Jail. I have been forced to sell my home and assets, been fined thousands of dollars and have not been able to rightfully provide for my family. Now, in less than a week, I will be forced to defend myself again in trial against criminal trespass charges, facing a team of government attorneys, for peacefully standing outside St. Luke’s Hospital demanding that they give baby Cyrus back to his loving parents. If convicted, I will be fined thousands of dollars and will most likely spend months, if not a year in jail, away from my little family who need me, sentenced by Judge Annie McDevitt. I am certain if I am thrown in jail, by the time I get out, St. Luke’s Executives and Holland & Hart Partners with help from a few Ada County Judges, will do their best to take everything they can from me and strip my family from anything we have left.

Never once have I damaged any property, committed any violence or harmed any person. I have remained peaceful and stood for peaceful remedies even when forceful actions in defense may have been justified. I have stood as a barrier in protecting the very people who are harming me from those who believe that sometimes a way to right a wrong is not always peaceful. Everything I have done has been peaceful, even when police officers have falsely arrested me, abused me, my family and my friends and caused me to bleed by violence. Even when jailers have cruelly forced me to suffer for days. Even when judges have taken my income, wealth and stripped me of my rights. Even when the courts have allowed judicial terrorists to use the force of law to harass and financially assault my family. I pray every day to my Father in Heaven for the resolve to remain peaceful, but feel I have the justification to call upon my friends and defend myself by any means, even though I have no intention at this point to do so.

My only desire is to be left alone! But I cannot stand by when the rights to life, liberty and property are being violated all around me. It is my belief that if a man or woman smites me or my family once I should bear it patiently and not revile against them. If they smite me or my family a second time, I should not revile against them. But if they smite me or my family a third time I should bear it patiently as a testimony against them, but warn them, in the name of Jesus Christ, that they come no more upon me or my family, and if they do so, God will deliver them into my hands. However, if they repent at any time, I should forgive them. I have full faith in these words and intend to live by them. 

I therefore warn; Blake Higley, Scott Bedke, Whitney Welsh, Chris Roth, Annie McDevitt, Erik Stidham, Brad Little and Keith Reynolds, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you come no more upon me or my family. I pray that I will be even more patience than I have been and hope that you will repent of your violations against the people of Idaho and myself. There is not one person that I hate or wish harm to come upon. I only hope that you will see that all men and women are equal to you and that you have no right to deprive anyone of the gifts that God has given them, no matter what authority or power you think you possess.

Humbly,

Ammon Bundy