Ammon Bundy Runs For Governor

[The Observer]

He is right. It is his inalienable right to be a douchenozzle. Nothing in the law says that right will be taken away, even if he went to jail. Does not mean that there won't be consequences for being a douchenozzle.

There is evidence here on Quatloos of that attitude. The problem with sovruns is that they don't seem to recognize that there is a line to how far any perceived right extends.

From the Robert Meyers thread:

“I stand by what I put in the ad, I have a First Amendment right to say it. I don’t care what the Supreme Court of Montana says, I certainly don’t care what Judge Langton says. I move to dismiss this and we get back to being Americans."

The result of Meyers' "principaled" stand is that he got disbarred and lost his license to practice law.

And there is the case of the sovrun who created a new right without limits:

Police said McIntire urinated between he and his neighbor’s homes at which time the neighbor reportedly asked him to stop because he has relatives whose young children visit him. McIntire reportedly told the man he would not, so the neighbor called police. When police questioned McIntire he allegedly claimed to be a Sovereign Citizen and could urinate on his own property.

[The Observer]

So why is Bundy claiming that the law firm recorded a lien against him? I am wondering if Bundy arranged for typical sovrun "liens" that will appear to cloud the title of the property and delay any of his assets being taken to satisfy the judgment (if any amount is approved by the court)? Or if he has arranged for a fraudulent sale of the property to hide the fact that he still retains control and use of the property while maintaining he is impoverished in order to defeat any sale of the assets?

And it looks like it is the latter option that Ammon Bundy has pursued in protecting his assets against the strong possibility of a judgment being handed down against him. The attorneys for St. Luke's Hospital are now alleging that Bundy has transferred his home into a trust held by an LLC in order to defeat any attempt to collect future judgments againt him. The LLC that received the property is in turn owned by another LLC based in Wyoming. The owner of that LLC is a man named Aaron Welling. Welling is connected to Bundy by way of being Bundy's treasurer for his gubernatorial campaign in Idaho last year.

The reference made earlier by Bundy that his real property had a lien recorded against it was accurate. The lien had been authorized by the court when Bundy did not pay the $5400 in attorney fees awarded for his failure to appear in court. As a consequence Bundy had to pay off the lien before the transfer could proceed.

And Bundy is maintaining that the sale to the LLC was a legitimate sale, despite the fact that he still resides there. He claims he is paying $2700 a month in rent to the LLC. From my viewpoint, all of these are structured actions to provide defense against any charges of transferee fraud. The problem is that it does not overcome a substantive issue of Bundy still being present at the property and retaining control over it. It also does not address the potential issue of Bundy effectively rendering himself judgment proof since he will claim that he no longer has the ability to pay.

This could become even more of a problem if Bundy and/or Welling cannot provide verifiable proof that Welling provided legitimate funds through escrow to Bundy as part of the purchase. This would require also proof that the property sold for a reasonable fair market value (Bundy listed the home as being worth $1.2 million). This does not mean that Bundy had to sell the property for 1.2 million but it also does not mean he gets to sell it for a token amount (like $100).

Complicating the issue is Wyoming LLC laws provide a high amount of privacy regarding LLC entities, which means the LLC can list only the registered agent for the LLC - it is not required to disclose names and addresses of owners, shareholders, officers, and directors. The reason this is important would be to determine if Bundy is listed on the LLC as an owner or shareholder; if he is, that would be major proof that he fraudulently transferred the property.

[The Observer]

Some other tidbits about Ammon in recent news:

1) Ammon's attempt to move the state trial to federal court failed, according to the press. Predictably, the ruling was based on the fed not having jurisdiction. Ammon, in response, posted a video on Tweet aimed at rallying his followers:

It's happening everywhere, even in Idaho.

They are going after anyone who opposes them. They took Tucker Carlson off the air, arrested former President Donald Trump & they're labeling Christians as domestic terrorists. Now they are coming after me...

2) The arrest warrant issued by the state judge for Bundy's contempt of court in April is apparently still open but it is anyone's guess when law enforcement will act on it. Bundy has issued a number of statements that appear to have forced the sheriff's office to reconsider the danger of going to Bundy's home to arrest him. And apparently Bundy has been holed up on the property as part of his standoff plan.

3) In response to the allegations that he is hiding assets, Bundy denied it. In another Tweet he claimed he wasn't hiding any of his assets in an LLC. See

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2023/05/s ... denies-it/

and

https://wyofile.com/civil-suit-alleges- ... n-wyoming/

for more details on the allegations and Bundy's response.

[The Observer]

Some more details on Ammon's motion to move the lawsuit to federal court:

https://www.bigcountrynewsconnection.co ... b09a7.html

In short, Ammon's claim that all defendants' rights (including his People Rights Network, Freedom Man PAC and Freedom Man Press LLC) are jeopardy and that due to other defendants live outside the state gained no sympathy from the federal judge. The judge noted that Bundy lives in the state, his organization is registered with the state, and the plaintiffs operate in the state. Therefore the motion did not meet the "complete diversity" requirement for moving a case to federal court.

Bundy has 21 days from the day of the denial (May 19th) to respond to the decision. I believe that means a June 9th deadline.

Given the likelihood of Bundy failing to appear in federal court since he believes that the federal government is stealing all of our freedom (he has been pretty much absent from the state court proceedings based on a similar belief about the state) the federal judge made a wise decision to not give any leeway to Bundy's stall tactics.

[wserra]

In addition to the lack of complete diversity that Obs notes above, the Court also ruled that Bundy: (1) failed to include the complete state court record with his removal petition, (2) waited almost a year to file the petition (the law requires no more than thirty days), (3) did not comply with the requirement that all non-individual parties be represented by attorneys and (4) is not facing any denial of equal rights under Idaho state law so as to be able to invoke 28 USC 1443. Any of these would be fatal to removal. Other than that, the petition is a jurisprudential model.

Another example of how people like Bundy don't believe that they should have to abide by the same rules as everyone else.

[The Observer]

Another example of how people like Bundy don't believe that they should have to abide by the same rules as everyone else.

There is that. This is probably the result of how Cliven raised his family and how he set an example for his children.

But it also speaks to the ignorance of and inability to understand the legal system by people like the Bundys. My guess is that Ammon, realizing that the odds were stacked against him, decided on this hail-Mary-in-desperation filing. He may have been thinking that, if nothing else, it would throw a monkey wrench into the state trial and delay the proceedings from reaching their inescapable result.

[The Observer]

Ammon encountered opposition last week when a group of sheriffs (retired and active) published a letter that condemns Ammon's antics and law-breaking. Ammon hasn't responded to this public letter, but it's probably safe to say that he may be a bit jolted to find more people in local authority positions coming out against him.

[The Observer]

The jury in the Ammon Bundy defamation trial decided on damages yesterday against Bundy as well as Rodriguez (grandfather of the infant whose health was the issue that kicked off this whole mess) and their organizations. Damages amounted to a whopping $26.5 million in compensatory damages and a similar mount in punitive damages:

Ammon Bundy: $6.2 million compensatory, $6.15 million punitive

People’s Rights Network: $5.2M compensatory, $5.2M punitive

Ammon Bundy for Governor: $1.55M compensatory, $1.65M punitive

Diego Rodriguez: $7M compensatory, $6.5M punitive

Freedom Man Press/Freedom Man PAC combined: $6.55M compensatory, $6.5M punitive

Since the defendants never showed up for the trial, they ended up being guilty by default.

When Bundy was contact by the press for comments about the verdict, he stated:

The Ada County courts are embarrassing. This recent verdict confirms everything I have been saying. I am glad I did not participate and legitimize this mockery of justices [sic].

Of course, collecting that amount of money from any of the entities is going to problematic and will probably involve more court time to establish if the assets that belonged to them were fraudulently transferred and can still be reached by the judgment.

[The Observer]

And the Idaho judicial system continues resolving the issues that arose over Bundy's antics in the St. Luke's case.

Bundy was finally arrested this past Friday (8/11) on the outstanding warrant issued by Judge Norton during the civil lawsuit against him. She had previously issued a pre-trial injunction against Ammon to prevent any witness intimidation and harassment by him or his organizations. When that was violated, Bundy was found in contempt and a bench warrant issued for his arrest (since he was not appearing at his trial).

Bundy was taken into custody at his son's high school football banquet. Apparently he had some support from the crowd, since the press is reporting that the officers taking Bundy into custody were jeered at by some people at the event center. Later, the customary call went out to sovcits to muster up and appear at the jail where Bundy was booked. Again, there were people responding and showing up.

Bail was set at $10,000 but as of the next day Bundy was still in custody. He has paid monies before to avoid jail time, but whether he decides to pony up the money to get out is likely to depend on how much mileage he thinks he can get out of a lengthy incarceration in order to gin up more sympathy and support. Another potential factor is his attempt to plead impoverishment after "selling" his properties to avoid collection; if he has to use his "former" home as security for the bail amount, that will certainly undermine his claim that he no longer legally owns the site.

[JamesVincent]

Is there anything in any of the articles or statements saying why it took so long to actually arrest him?

[The Observer]

Is there anything in any of the articles or statements saying why it took so long to actually arrest him?

Nothing that I saw. But that is not surprising if the LEOs involved don't want to explain their lack of inactivity.

This past Friday, Judge Nancy Baskin handed down a permanent injunction against Bundy and his co-defendants that requires them to take down any posts or videos that defame St. Luke's and its employees in response to a request from their attorneys. The defendants were also ordered by the judge to cease from making any kind of defamatory statements. She issued this order after seeing overwhelming evidence of the defendants' actions and statements that she considered to be inciting violence, intimidation and harassment of the employees of St. Luke's. In the past, Bundy decided to take a page from the Pizzagate scandal and accused St. Luke's being a nexus for child trafficking.

St. Luke's moved ahead with taking steps to collect against the $26 million judgment against Bundy and his entities. Suit was filed accusing Bundy of engaging in fraudulent transactions to hide his assets. Plaintiff believes that Bundy is actually worth about $5 million and that his residence is worth at least $1 million. Bundy, of course denies all of this and says he has about $50k in savings and some tools. St. Luke's submitted evidence showing that Bundy purportedly sold his home to his gubernatorial campaign treasurer for $250,000 - a transaction that the plaintiff says was a "sweetheart deal." In addition, Bundy is leasing back the residence for $2,620 a month for the next 5 years as well as running the orchard the Bundys have on the property.

The purchaser, Aaron Welling, was deposed by St. Luke's attornies regarding the "sale" and he made some statements that I think tend to prove that this was a fraudulent transfer. He testified that Bundy, after offering the property, told him that if Welling wanted it, it would have to be done quickly. One of the indicators of fraud is taking steps to render yourself judgment proof such as appearing to sell or give away property for less than fair market value. Another indicator is for the fraudster to still maintain, occupy and/or pay taxes and utilities for the property as customary and expected of owners. adn finally, a recorded video that Bundy made should come back to haunt him for saying this:

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.

[The Observer]

Nothing that I saw. But that is not surprising if the LEOs involved don't want to explain their lack of inactivity.

I looked around again and discovered these two links that offer up an explanation for the delay in serving:

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/25/11899539 ... -the-money

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2023/08/12/ ... em-county/

Apparently, the sheriff's office was hesitant to serve the warrant at the time they were issued due to Bundy' aggressive posturing. The sheriff was quoted as saying that he was hesitant to risk his deputies over a civil issue.

Edited due to my oversight over the last sentence missing words.

[JamesVincent]

What we've got here is failure to communicate.

Some men, you just can't reach.

So you get what we had here last week -- which is the way he wants it.

Well, he gets it.

And I don't like it anymore than you men.

- Cool Hand Luke

[The Observer]

More developments on the Bundy front regarding Ammon's fishy transfer of his house:

(1) The attorneys for St. Luke's obtained a prelim injunction against Ammon, his wife and his various entities from transferring any assets or monies to or from other entities. This is a serious blow, especially given the fact that the judge ordered that, other than allowing an exemption of $5,750 a month for monthly living expenses, no other deposits or withdrawals could be done with banks. Ammon was not happy with this dollar amount, claiming that he could not afford to support his family of 8 people on that amount of money; he stated in an interview he would not be complying with the injunction on this point.

(2) The injunction also imposes a ban on Bundy taking on new liabilities, such as loans, leases or mortgages which will prevent him from structuring transfers to appear as though he does not have equity in assets. But it also will impose a problem if Bundy needs access to borrowed funds to facilitate a legitimate operation, like harvesting crops.

(3) In regards to Bundy's house, the attorneys pushed for the judge to rule that this was a fraudulent conveyance, done to put the residence out of reach of any attempt by the hospital to satisfy the judgment. The judge took the first step by enjoining Bundy's confederate Aaron Welling from transferring or selling the house. Welling was the individual who had claimed that Bundy sold his home to him for $250,000. Evidence was provided that Welling actually never paid Bundy the $250,000 up front and had only paid the existing mortgage owed by Bundy; further proof of fraudulent intent was that these monthly payments came directly from the supposed rent checks Bundy was paying to Welling. It didn't help Bundy's cause that the statements he made that he was taking steps to protect his assets were cited by the judge as another factor that convinced him that the transfer was fraudulent.

(4) Bundy got a minor victory in that the original judgment was reduced when it was discovered that the punitive damages of $7 million (awarded to St. Luke's CEO Roth) violated Idaho law since it was more than 3 times the compensatory damages that were awarded. So Bundy now only liable for S6.375 million in punitive damages to Roth.

(5) Bundy is still facing contempt of court charges which could result in 6 months due to multiple charge along with $5000 in fines for each count for which he is found to be guilty. That hearing will be held sometime in mid-November due to the judge agreeing to delay it so Bundy could harvest his fruit crop.

[JamesVincent]

Something I've wondered, ever since the emergence of the Bundy clan onto the news, what is the endgame of all this? I mean I understand that they claim to do it to get the government to leave them alone but what then? Unless I'm mistaken Cliven wasn't exactly rolling in money from the cattle he illegally grazed on government land, Ammon doesn't seem to be flowing in cash despite all his antics, where do you go from here? If the government and courts dropped every single action right this minute (very unlikely) how would their lives, or anyone's life for that matter, be any better? They have to know, deep down, that they will lose no matter what. The only reason the standoff at the Bundy ranch worked was that the government was scared of another Ruby Ridge or Waco being plastered across the interwebz. If the merde had hit the ventilateur a single squad from HRT or any other of the special ops squads the government keeps trained for just those situations would have blown through the compound like a Kansas tornado in a trailer park. It wouldn't have been pretty but they are damn effective. They have to know that, if they didn't some of the militant groups that showed up had vets among them, they had to have told them that. Ammon has to know he will never be elected to any official position, despite all his posturing. Even in the areas he likes to strut around he has to know that there aren't that many people who would even consider it, much less actually waste a vote on him.

So, knowing that, where do you go?

[Frater I*I]

So, knowing that, where do you go?

It's an eternal grift....

[JamesVincent]

So, knowing that, where do you go?

It's an eternal grift....

Fair enough but he's not actually able to grift anything. Not unless I'm missing something. The entire family is losing and losing badly from what is reported.

[The Observer]

Update on the fraudulent conveyance trial:

Ammon continues to avoid appearing in court and has failed to actively defend himself from the charge that he committed fraud by transferring his house for less than its worth in order to defeat any attempts to collect by St. Luke's Hospital. The hospital is asking for the house "sale" to be reversed and the property be placed back in Bundy's name.

The hospital's attorneys filed a motion in court on September 25th asking for a default judgment due to Bundy's disappearing act by failing to attend the 3 hearings held so far. Under state court rule 55 the court must enter a default judgment if one party has failed to plead or defend in a court trial. Bundy already had a rule 55 decision made against him in the defamation trial for being AWOL. It is probably because of this that Bundy decided to file some sort of documents with the court prior to this motion being filed. But like any self-respecting sovrun trying to represent himself for free, Bundy failed to follow the court filing rules (no cover sheet provided) and did not pay the filing fees.

The judge has given Bundy 10 days to get his act together and file the documents correctly and pay the necessary filing fee. Given that the reported documents are nothing more than Bundy repeating the same baseless accusations of conspiracy against St. Luke's that found him guilty of defamation, it is doubtful that these arguments are going to get the judge's sympathy. No doubt that Bundy loves doubling down when he doesn't have a hand. The reporting also said that the documents spent considerable verbiage on refuting the results of his defamation trial and that it was also a conspiracy to destroy him politically.

But he did get around to making some sort of defense regarding the transfer of the house to Aaron Welling, one of his associates that assisted Bundy when he ran for governor. He claimed that the sale was not illegal, because he has never "...amaged any property, committed any violence or harmed any person,..." Not sure how that is relevant to the evidence showing that Bundy transferred a house worth at least $1 million for 1/4 of that value without receiving any money as a payment, and that the lease payments he agreed to make are equal to the current mortgage that is owed by Bundy. But hey, it's close enough for sovrun work.

The documents also ask that the court reschedule the hearing on October 23rd since Bundy cannot attend due to him being in the middle of harvesting his apple and pear orchards. He made a big point of how much he and his family rely on being able to bring in this harvest and that not being able to do so would cause the family harm and not allow Bundy the fair hearing he deserves. I suppose this argument is the reason the court gave Bundy the 10 days to refile the documents so that the court could consider it and render a decision that would demonstrate fairness.

But in the meantime Bundy shoots himself in the foot once again. He announced on his People's Right Network that he was extending an invitation to all members to come to the orchards and pick fruit that they could keep and process themselves into cider, pie filling or applesauce. He stated that he was not going to sell all of his crop this year. This appears to be another attempt at denying St Luke's another avenue to collect from Bundy. And it seems to undercut the reason he argued for a rescheduled hearing. If he is not going to sell his crop and is allowing others to come and harvest it for free, then I would argue that there is no reason that Bundy needs the hearing rescheduled.

Given that Bundy was able to get his contempt of court hearing rescheduled to November for the same reason, it is understandable that he would try the same argument. One can only hope that the judge in the fraud trial is paying attention to what Bundy is saying elsewhere.

Edited to fix an incomplete sentence.

[The Observer]

An article today exploring one segment of the Bundy family tree - Ammon's cousin Celeste Maloy. It's an interesting read, given that Maloy is on the "public-federal-lands-oughta-belong-to-the-state" bandwagon, yet is a practicing attorney and has worked at the government level in positions for agencies responsible for public land use. She is currently running as a GOP candidate for a congressional seat in Utah.

Money quote from the article:

She has spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C. as a lawyer, and that concerns me,” [Ammon] Bundy said, adding he has not discussed politics with her for more than eight years.

[JamesVincent]

She is currently running as a GOP candidate for a congressional seat in Utah.

So what I gathered from the article is that her best qualification for candidacy is that she is related to the Bundys.