Ammon Bundy, 2 supporters, arrested at the Idaho Statehouse. They’re accused of trespassing - East Idaho News
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Ammon Bundy, 2 supporters, arrested at the Idaho Statehouse. They’re accused of trespassing

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Ruth Brown, Idaho Statesman

Ammon Bundy01
Ammon Bundy was among those who pushed their way into the House chambers. “We ended up having to push our way in; eventually they yielded to the people’s voice and they allowed us in,” he said, “after some pushing and shoving and some shouting. That’s sometimes the way democracy, if you want to call it that, is.” | Idaho Statesman

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — The Emmett man best known for being tried but not convicted in two federal standoffs was arrested Tuesday at the Idaho Statehouse for trespassing.

Ammon Bundy and several other organizers were in the Lincoln Auditorium at the Capitol when a disturbance among members of the public began and Idaho State Police troopers were called in.

The Lincoln Auditorium was supposed to host the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee Hearing, but chairman Rep. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell, moved the hearing to another room in the east wing after the disturbance.

Initially, the meeting was disrupted when members of the public — at least some apparently part of the anti-vaccination advocacy group Health Freedom Idaho — refused to move out of press corps seats.

The Lincoln Auditorium has a desk with a few seats for the Capitol Correspondents. The seats are for properly credentialed media members only, and when people who are not credentialed were asked to leave, the meeting was disrupted.

Chaney asked the people to move from the seats, after troopers had warned them that they did not qualify as credential media. When they moved back to the seats, Chaney told them they needed to leave.

Several people in the room started shouting and troopers came into the room. All lawmakers left the room and moved to a different hearing room to continue with their legislative agenda.

Meanwhile, Bundy and others stayed in the Lincoln Auditorium, seated at the media desk, and refused to leave.

Just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, ISP troopers said they arrested three people who refused to leave the Lincoln Auditorium, including Bundy.

“Troopers were clearing the hearing room at the order of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Scott Bedke. At the time of the Speaker’s order, about 18 people were inside the auditorium. All but three voluntarily left the room. The three that refused the order to leave were placed under arrest by Idaho troopers,” ISP said in a news release.

“One of the three individuals arrested, Ammon Bundy, of Emmett, refused to stand. He was placed in handcuffs and removed from the Statehouse still in the rolling chair where he was seated,” police say.

The three arrested are being booked into the Ada County Jail on the charge of misdemeanor trespassing.

Additional information will be released as it becomes available.

Multiple people, including Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, witnessed the arrest. Bundy was rolled out of the building on an office chair.

Earlier Tuesday, ISP cited and released a 33-year-old Boise man for trespassing. According to ISP, he man was requested by Idaho State Police troopers to leave the area. He refused. Troopers removed the man from the hearing room, he was cited and removed from the premises.

Bundy has been a frequent face in the Statehouse lately, testifying in several hearings during the Legislature’s Special Session.

He also supported an unsuccessful effort to recall Gov. Brad Little after Little issued a stay-at-home order in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bundy and his family have been in news headlines for the past five years following their involvement in two armed standoffs, one at a family ranch in Nevada in 2014 and one at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in 2016.

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