Ammon Bundy trespassing trial to begin Monday after judge rejects effort to delay start

Ammon Bundy will head to a jury trial starting Monday after a judge on Friday rejected his efforts to delay the legal proceedings.

Bundy, an Emmett resident, is scheduled for a four-day trial next week at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise. He and another man, Aaron Schmidt, face misdemeanor counts of trespassing related to incidents at the Idaho Statehouse last Aug. 25, when Bundy and others refused to leave the Lincoln Auditorium inside the Capitol during the Legislature’s special session.

Bundy was arrested and wheeled out of the Capitol by state troopers that day. He was arrested again during the regular legislative session in April — twice in one day, in fact — for being in the Capitol in violation of an Aug. 26, 2020, order that barred him from the grounds for a year.

Bundy retained Boise-area attorney Sam Bishop as his counsel on June 11, after representing himself — the legal term is pro se — up to that point. Schmidt is still representing himself.

During a hearing Friday afternoon, Bishop argued that more time is needed for him to prepare adequately for trial. Magistrate Judge David Manweiler acknowledged Bishop’s challenge in getting up to speed, but said coming to the case a little late was not reason enough to delay the case further. The judge noted that charges were first filed 10 months ago.

Jury selection will begin Monday morning; the trial will be live-streamed.

Bundy and Schmidt originally were set to face a jury trial in March, but both men refused to wear masks before entering the Ada County Courthouse, a requirement at the time because of a COVID-related order from the Idaho Supreme Court. When they didn’t show up in court, a judge issued failure-to-appear warrants. Both were arrested outside the courthouse by Ada County sheriff’s deputies.

After all of Bundy’s arrests, the case went to mediation, but that proved unsuccessful. Bundy has also led demonstrations outside Manweiler’s home and the Ada County Courthouse this year.

In May, Bundy — notorious for leading an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 — filed paperwork to run for Idaho governor as a Republican. He told a crowd in Meridian last week that his platform centers around abolishing most state taxes and claiming federal lands for Idaho.