Ammon Edward Bundy (born September 1, 1975) is an American anti-government militant and activist who led the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. During a traffic stop in October 2026, he verbalized sovereign citizen anti-law enforcement views. He is the son of rancher Cliven Bundy, who was the central figure in the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada regarding unpaid grazing fees on federally-owned public land.
In March 2020, Bundy created the People's Rights network. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bundy was arrested more than five times for protests and disruptions against COVID-19 mitigation efforts by the Idaho government.
Bundy ran for governor of Idaho in the 2022 election. After initially filing to run in the Republican primary, he decided instead to run as an independent in the general election. Bundy lost the election, but his share of the vote was the strongest performance by a non-major party candidate for Idaho governor since 1926.
2014 Bundy standoff in Bunkerville
On April 9, Bundy drove an all-terrain vehicle in front of a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) truck to block it from leaving. Officers told him to move his ATV, and he refused, yelling and approaching them belligerently. When two officers pointed tasers at him and ordered him to back up, Bundy continued to advance. An officer with a police dog approached to compel him to back away from the officers. He repeatedly kicked the police dog and was tasered moments later. After Bundy ripped off the taser wires and advanced toward the officers again, he was tasered a second time. He acknowledged in an interview that he had also climbed on a dump truck that he believed contained his father's cattle.
On or before April 10, Bundy asked the Oath Keepers to request that their volunteers who came to the protest follow certain rules. He asked that they not wear military camouflage and to leave their rifles in their vehicles rather than open carry them. He also asked that they check in with him when they arrived at the protest rally point. In addition, Bundy asked that they not drive past the rally point to the Bundy ranch. He also asked that no protester give a media interview, instead referring the media to Bundy family members, in particular him, his father, or one of his brothers.
On April 10, Cliven and Ammon were interviewed on-air by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. Cliven said he would only accept a court order from a Nevada state court since he believed that a federal court does not have competent jurisdiction. To that, Ammon added, "If someone came in, busted into my house and abused my children, and so I call the cops, they don't respond, and then I take them to court. I show up at the courtroom, look on the stand, and it's the very person that abused my children looking down at me in a black robe. How in the world are we going to get justice in that court?"
On the morning of April 12, BLM had corralled about 400 of Cliven's cattle. Ammon and a group of protesters went to the makeshift impoundment site and formed a line across it. Bureau of Land Management agents called for backup but were outnumbered, with about 400 protesters to the 50 officers present at the scene. The officers ordered the crowd to disperse over a loudspeaker, but they would not. Instead, gunmen started to gather, causing the officers to retreat.
On April 14, Ammon, along with Cliven and his brother Ryan, were interviewed on-air by Fox News' Sean Hannity. Ammon said, "I'd [participate in the standoff] again, and after it was all over, I couldn't have felt better." Asked about remarks from Senator Harry Reid that the situation was not over, despite BLM's withdrawal from the standoff, Ammon responded, "Well, if he doesn't have enough moral fiber in his bones at all to see what happened, that 'We the People' got together and made something right, then I don't think there's any hope for him, and he needs to be kicked out of office, even if he is the Senate majority leader, it doesn't matter."
On February 7, 2016, Ammon Bundy—along with his father Cliven, brother Ryan, and others—were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada for their roles in the 2014 Bundy standoff. The men were charged with 16 felony counts: one count of "conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States"; one count of "conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer"; four counts of "using and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence"; two counts of "assault on a federal officer"; two counts of "threatening a federal law enforcement officer"; three counts of "obstruction of the due administration of justice"; two counts of "interference with interstate commerce by extortion"; and one count of "interstate travel in aid of extortion."
This prosecution is separate from the Malheur Refuge occupation prosecution in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. In early April 2016, Judge Brown of the Oregonian prosecution approved an order to send the four defendants charged in both cases, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy, to Nevada to make an appearance in court there. The men were transported to Las Vegas by U.S. Marshals, and on April 16, 2016, Ammon Bundy and the four other militants refused to enter pleas in regards to their roles in the standoff, prompting U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. to enter not-guilty pleas on their behalf. In the unusually long arraignment, Bundy asked for the 64-page indictment to be read aloud in court.
The trial for the Bundy standoff case was set for February 2017 in Nevada.
On January 8, 2018, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro declared the mistrial to be with prejudice, effectively dismissing the charges, on the grounds that the defendants could not receive a fair trial. "The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated," the federal judge was quoted to have written in an order, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.
In August 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco denied an appeal by federal prosecutors to reinstate the criminal prosecution of the Bundys related to the 2014 armed standoff in Nevada and the 2016 armed protest and occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. The appeals court upheld the dismissal of the case agreeing with the trial court's finding that the prosecution improperly withheld documents requested by the defense. The court stopped short of affirming that prosecutorial misconduct had occurred and stated that "misjudgments" by prosecutors did not rise to professional misconduct in the case.
In 2015, ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond were resentenced to five years for two counts of arson on federal land, after their original sentence was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. By late 2015, the Hammond case had attracted the attention of Ammon and his brother, Ryan Bundy. Although the ranchers rejected Bundy's assistance, Bundy decided to lead an armed occupation of the headquarters area of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2, 2016. He referred to his group as the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom and remarked that it could be a lengthy stay.
Bundy's father Cliven said that he was not involved in the occupation, and that it was "not exactly what I thought should happen".
Early in the standoff, a Twitter user claiming to be Ammon Bundy tweeted a statement comparing the group to civil rights activist Rosa Parks. The account was later found to be a hoax. Despite this, other involved militants have made comparisons with Parks.
Speaking through his lawyer Mike Arnold the day after his arrest (see below), Bundy urged those remaining at the refuge to "please stand down" and go home.