Utah hunting guide charged with illegally baiting bear for Donald Trump Jr.

A Utah hunting guide who baited a bear to make an easier kill for Donald Trump Jr. during a boys’ weekend in 2018 now faces up to five years in prison.

The guide, Wade Lemon, is facing felony criminal charges for illegally baiting the bear with “a pile of grain, oil, and pastries,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported Saturday.

Lemon’s company has been investigated as many as eight times for illegal baits, according to the Utah Department of Natural Resources, often setting traps for the prey when rich guests came into town.

“Great weekend in Utah with some good friends in the outdoors,” Trump Jr. wrote on Instagram on May 19, 2018, along with photos of their cabins and the scenery. “Lots of quality time in the woods hanging out at 10,000 feet.”

Donald Trump Jr. went hunting in Utah in May 2018. (Alec Tabak/)

No photos of his kills were shared, but the ex-president’s son allegedly snagged a bear and a cougar that weekend.

Trump was not named in the charging documents, but Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said the hunter “was actually a victim and a now a possible witness in a fraudulent scheme to lead the hunter to believe it was actually a legitimate Wild West hunting situation,” according to the Tribune.

There’s no evidence that Trump knew about the bait, officials said.

At the time, the middle son was in town with Hunter Nation, an organization that promotes hunting and gun rights and later formed a PAC that spent almost $100,000 in anti-Democrat ads during the 2020 presidential election.

Lemon denied any wrongdoing when reached by the Tribune: “As far as I knew everything was above board.”