03-05-2021, 11:11 PM
The trial is beginning. Detroit Free Pres.
A confidential FBI informant testified Friday in a Jackson (Michigan) court about being embedded for months alongside leaders of a group accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The informant’s identity was concealed for his safety. Introduced only as “Dan,” an online video feed of Friday’s hearing was cut off during his testimony so court observers only could hear him.
Dan described learning of the group — known as the Wolverine Watchmen — through a Facebook algorithm that he believed made the suggestion based on his interactions with other Facebook pages that support the Second Amendment and firearms training.
“I was scrolling through Facebook one day and they popped up as a suggestion post,” Dan said. “I clicked on the page and it had a few questions to answer.”
After answering the questions satisfactorily, Dan, an Army veteran who described himself as a Libertarian, was admitted into the group and told to download an encrypted messaging app called Wire so he could communicate in secret with other members. The app prohibited screenshots and would periodically delete all messages.
Dan's acceptance into the Facebook group was the beginning of his journey as a confidential FBI “human source” that took him to protests at the state Capitol and to rural training exercises with members of the group who expressed a desire to hurt and kill law enforcement officers and politicians. Dan testified he sometimes wore a wire and feared for his safety, eventually deciding to sell his house when his address became known.
Dan and the group's members also attended what he described as a Black Lives Matter protest in Detroit. The group went to the protest envisioning a possible gunfight with police if pepper spray was used on protesters, he testified. The group waited in a parking lot but eventually left the protest without incident.
Dan told a friend in law enforcement about the group shortly after learning of its desires to harm police officers. The FBI then approached him and he agreed to cooperate, he testified, adding that he did not ask for money.
As an FBI source, Dan became familiar with the three defendants in court today on charges they supported a plot to kidnap Whitmer.
Dan testified at the preliminary examination for Pete Musico, 43; his son-in-law, Joseph Morrison, 26; and Paul Bellar, 22.
The men are just three of the 14 men said to have plotted to target Whitmer over her restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Six of the 14 men were charged federally, and eight were charged at the state level over two counties.
Defense attorneys attempted to distance the accused from the surveillance activities to further the plot to kidnap Whitmer.
Bellar had left the Wolverine Watchmen to live with his father in South Carolina last summer, well before the plans advanced in the ensuing months, his attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, said during cross-examination of the informant.
During his testimony, Dan confirmed that other members in the group suspected Bellar of cooperating with law enforcement after his departure from Michigan.
Dan testified for about six hours on Friday, and he was the final witness to be called in the preliminary exam.
Judge Michael Klaeren set March 29 as the next hearing date.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/05/whitmer-kidnapping-plot-hearing-musico-morrison-bellar/4591203001/
A confidential FBI informant testified Friday in a Jackson (Michigan) court about being embedded for months alongside leaders of a group accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The informant’s identity was concealed for his safety. Introduced only as “Dan,” an online video feed of Friday’s hearing was cut off during his testimony so court observers only could hear him.
Dan described learning of the group — known as the Wolverine Watchmen — through a Facebook algorithm that he believed made the suggestion based on his interactions with other Facebook pages that support the Second Amendment and firearms training.
“I was scrolling through Facebook one day and they popped up as a suggestion post,” Dan said. “I clicked on the page and it had a few questions to answer.”
After answering the questions satisfactorily, Dan, an Army veteran who described himself as a Libertarian, was admitted into the group and told to download an encrypted messaging app called Wire so he could communicate in secret with other members. The app prohibited screenshots and would periodically delete all messages.
Dan's acceptance into the Facebook group was the beginning of his journey as a confidential FBI “human source” that took him to protests at the state Capitol and to rural training exercises with members of the group who expressed a desire to hurt and kill law enforcement officers and politicians. Dan testified he sometimes wore a wire and feared for his safety, eventually deciding to sell his house when his address became known.
Dan and the group's members also attended what he described as a Black Lives Matter protest in Detroit. The group went to the protest envisioning a possible gunfight with police if pepper spray was used on protesters, he testified. The group waited in a parking lot but eventually left the protest without incident.
Dan told a friend in law enforcement about the group shortly after learning of its desires to harm police officers. The FBI then approached him and he agreed to cooperate, he testified, adding that he did not ask for money.
As an FBI source, Dan became familiar with the three defendants in court today on charges they supported a plot to kidnap Whitmer.
Dan testified at the preliminary examination for Pete Musico, 43; his son-in-law, Joseph Morrison, 26; and Paul Bellar, 22.
The men are just three of the 14 men said to have plotted to target Whitmer over her restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Six of the 14 men were charged federally, and eight were charged at the state level over two counties.
Defense attorneys attempted to distance the accused from the surveillance activities to further the plot to kidnap Whitmer.
Bellar had left the Wolverine Watchmen to live with his father in South Carolina last summer, well before the plans advanced in the ensuing months, his attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, said during cross-examination of the informant.
During his testimony, Dan confirmed that other members in the group suspected Bellar of cooperating with law enforcement after his departure from Michigan.
Dan testified for about six hours on Friday, and he was the final witness to be called in the preliminary exam.
Judge Michael Klaeren set March 29 as the next hearing date.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/05/whitmer-kidnapping-plot-hearing-musico-morrison-bellar/4591203001/
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.