Documented Record
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KCRCC subcommittee investigates Prop 1 signers
Coeur d'Alene Press · September 2026
- She requested and received Kootenai County's list of registered voters who signed the Prop 1 petition, and published lists for several counties.
- She called the initiative "let's make murder legal in Idaho" in a June 30 Facebook post.
- She wrote that the 1,295 Republican signers on her list were "highly likely" to be RINOs.
- KCRCC committeeman Gary Neill, one of the members under investigation over the petition, called her publishing the list "invasive" and "crappy politics."
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Primary Source"Kootenai County Residents Who Signed the Abortion Initiative," The Bushnell Report (June 30, 2026)Her own post with the quote and the downloadable signer list she obtained from the Kootenai County Clerk's Office.
Idaho Supreme Court upheld $1.176M defamation judgment
June 2022 - September 2026
- Jeremy Lokken recorded a drag performer's June 2022 Pride in the Park set and sent Bushnell the video.
- She posted a blurred edit claiming it covered "fully exposed genitals."
- She spliced in unrelated footage of a child reacting to another performance.
- The unedited footage showed no exposure, and police never filed charges.
- She testified Lokken told her to look for the "wardrobe malfunction" he saw.
- A Kootenai County jury unanimously found in 2024 that she defamed the performer with the doctored video.
- The jury found she knew the claim was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
- Jurors awarded $926,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages.
- The Idaho Supreme Court upheld the judgment in September 2026.
- On appeal, the court said only six of her 22 cited sources were quoted accurately.
- It called the errors "pervasive and egregious" but declined to add a sanction.
- Court records show no voluntary payments on the judgment. Her husband's wages are being garnished.
Sources (4)
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Posey v. Bushnell, Idaho Supreme Court opinion
Idaho Supreme Court · September 2026
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Primary SourcePosey v. Bushnell, Docket No. 52072 (Idaho Sept. 22, 2026)Opinion recounting the trial record and the sanctions discussion on her briefing.
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Idaho Supreme Court rejects appeal in drag defamation case
Coeur d'Alene Press · September 2026 (archive)
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Idaho Supreme Court rejects appeal in drag queen defamation case
Boise State Public Radio · September 2026 (archive)
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Deposition of Summer Bushnell, Posey v. Bushnell
Kootenai County District Court, CV28-22-5860 · August 2023
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Primary SourceBushnell deposition, Aug. 25, 2023 (pp. 62-72)How she got the video from Lokken and what he told her to look for.
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Idaho Secretary of State campaign finance records: Awesome Sauce PAC and payments to Bushnell
Idaho Secretary of State, Sunshine portal · 2020 to 2026
- She testified she did paid website and social media work for the KCRCC at about $6,000 a year.
- She said she let that contract expire shortly before her August 2023 deposition.
- She testified she ran Facebook pages for Todd Banducci, Elaine Price, Mike Waggoner, Bruce Mattare, Tom Hanley, Luke Sommer, Tony Wisniewski and Duke Johnson.
- She registered Awesome Sauce as a political action committee in January 2023 and served as its treasurer.
- Candidate committees paid her as Summer Bushnell or Bushnell Media from 2020 through 2026, including committees for Mike Waggoner, Tom Hanley and Luke Sommer.
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Primary SourceBushnell deposition, Aug. 25, 2023 (pp. 19-20, 22-26)Covers her KCRCC work and pay, and the page list. She said she usually got "a little bit of reimbursement" for the political pages.
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Primary SourceIdaho Sunshine campaign finance portalSearch Vendors & Spending for "Bushnell" on the legacy portal (https://sunshine.sos.idaho.gov/, records 2020-2023) and the current portal (https://sunshine.voteidaho.gov/public/cf/expenditures, Dec. 2023 on) to find each payment by date, payer and amount.
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Primary SourceIdaho Sunshine campaign finance portalSearch campaigns for "Awesome Sauce" on the legacy portal. Registered by C-1C on Jan. 4, 2023, with Summer Bushnell as treasurer.