Michigan plot, October 2020

[pbrower2a]

Surprisingly, Michigan is not one of the 44 states with a publicized Supermax unit. In view of Michigan's bleak, harsh winters, imprisonment there would have its own agony. I was in Jackson one day and made a wrong turn (on the roads and not in life) and got to see the outskirts of the prison for people who don't simply make a wrong turn off or into Interstate 94 but instead a huge mistake like doing an armed robbery. Michigan has no death penalty, but it has very long sentences; the one for armed robbery is the same as for attempted first-degree murder (25-to-life with no chance of parole for 25 years). Because any armed robbery is a potential murder, I fully understand and accept that equivalency. The federal weapons charges and accusations of conspiracy to do interstate kidnapping suggests that federal charges will be adequate.

[pbrower2a]

The trial continues. Anything is possible in a criminal case with no obvious precedent. One unusual thing about the filing is that  the dateline is "saturday night", which would be Christmas night, one of the most unlikely times of the year in which to do any legal proceeding.

Quote:GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Defense attorneys want to dismiss the indictment against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because of what they described as “egregious overreaching” by federal agents and informants, according to a court filing.

In the 20-page motion, which was filed Saturday night, defense attorneys allege FBI agents and federal prosecutors invented a conspiracy and entrapped people who could face up to life in prison. They’re asking U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker to dismiss the conspiracy charge, which would effectively knock down the federal government’s case and other connected charges, according to The Detroit News.

The request comes after developments and claims about the government’s team, including the conviction of Richard Trask, an FBI special agent who was arrested on a domestic violence charge and later fired and convicted of a misdemeanor.

“Essentially, the evidence here demonstrates egregious overreaching by the government’s agents, and by the informants those agents handled,” defense attorneys wrote. “When the government was faced with evidence showing that the defendants had no interest in a kidnapping plot, it refused to accept failure and continued to push its plan.”

Five people are charged with kidnapping conspiracy and face a trial March 8 in Grand Rapids. They have pleaded not guilty and claim to be victims of entrapment.

Federal prosecutors have argued the men were not entrapped. The government alleged the men were upset over coronavirus restrictions when they conspired to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat, even scouting her second home in northern Michigan. Messages left Sunday with the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan and the U.S. Department of Justice weren’t immediately returned.

In January, a sixth man, 26-year-old Ty Garbin, pleaded guilty and is serving a six-year federal prison sentence.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michigan-...d8b89bf44c
Summary dismissal? Not after so much is invested in this trial.

[pbrower2a]

2nd Man Accused Of Trying To Kidnap Michigan Governor Agrees To Plead Guilty

Kaleb Franks is the second man said he willfully conspired with five other men to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer because of her COVID-19 restrictions.

DETROIT (AP) — A man charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has agreed to plead guilty, according to documents filed Monday, giving prosecutors a second insider who could be a key witness at a March trial.

Kaleb Franks said he willfully conspired with five other men to kidnap the Democratic governor before FBI agents stepped in and arrested the group in October 2020. The government said they wanted to kidnap Whitmer because of their disgust over her COVID-19 restrictions.

Franks said he “was not entrapped or induced to commit any crimes” by undercover agents or informants. He signed a document agreeing to plead guilty as charged.

Ty Garbin pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to slightly more than six years in prison.

Franks acknowledged that he was deeply involved in the scheme, which included outdoor training with firearms in Wisconsin and Michigan and scouting Whitmer’s second home in northern Michigan.

In August 2020, less than two months before their arrest, Franks said he and a co-defendant “discussed their frustration with people who advocated anti-government action but were unwilling to use force themselves.”

The plea deal suggests Franks, like Garbin, could offer crucial testimony against the four remaining defendants at the March 8 trial in Grand Rapids. While there is no agreement on the length of his prison sentence, Franks could be rewarded if he “materially and substantially assists” the government.

A message seeking comment from Franks’ attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

When the kidnapping case was filed in 2020, it added even more heat to the final weeks of a tumultuous election season.

Whitmer pinned some blame on then-President Donald Trump, saying his refusal to denounce far-right groups had inspired extremists across the country. Trump had earlier urged supporters to “LIBERATE” Michigan and two other states led by Democratic governors from stay-at-home mandates.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kaleb-fra...042430c24a

[pbrower2a]

The legal process has been slow, but guilty pleas suggest that a plea deal will work out better for a defendant than will a jury trial.

Michigan is Ground Zero in the struggle between freedom and fascism in America.

[David Horn]

(02-07-2022, 01:27 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The legal process has been slow, but guilty pleas suggest that a plea deal will work out better for a defendant than will  a jury trial.

Michigan is Ground Zero in the struggle between freedom and fascism in America.

I spent a fair amount of time in Michigan during the early to mid-90s, when my company was deploying a new radio system throughout the Consumers Power service area. I was all over the state, from Benton Harbor to Ann Arbor to Cheboygan, and most of the territory in between.  I was surprised to be warned on several occasions that this or that bar or restaurant was a militia hangout, and best avoided.  Most were in rural areas, but a few were in solid blue-collar towns, that seemed about as normal to me as any other.

I never took the time to find the reason that these militia existed, but it's obvious that being in the north was no exception to the rule: radicalism grows organically anywhere people feel threatened or unappreciated.

[pbrower2a]

(02-08-2022, 01:04 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(02-07-2022, 01:27 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The legal process has been slow, but guilty pleas suggest that a plea deal will work out better for a defendant than will  a jury trial.

Michigan is Ground Zero in the struggle between freedom and fascism in America.

I spent a fair amount of time in Michigan during the early to mid-90s, when my company was deploying a new radio system throughout the Consumers Power service area. I was all over the state, from Benton Harbor to Ann Arbor to Cheboygan, and most of the territory in between.  I was surprised to be warned on several occasions that this or that bar or restaurant was a militia hangout, and best avoided.  Most were in rural areas, but a few were in solid blue-collar towns, that seemed about as normal to me as any other.

The 1990's were clearly 3T. That is still when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City with the loss of 169 innocent lives, and he was connected to the Michigan Militia. Blue-collar America has drifted Right as its economic security fades and as people unlike them seem by ethnicity and religion seem to have kids shooting ahead of their kids in economic life while blue-collar America fades in importance. 

I think we can all agree that the quality of life in America as a whole depends heavily upon the revival of blue-collar prosperity so that people who have learning and skills need not leave places like Battle Creek, Flint, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Saginaw to have a chance in life only to end up becoming little more than conduits of money from one plutocrat (an employer) to another (a landlord who gouges tenants during a housing shortage in places where the economy is still vibrant). It's better that we have more well-paying blue-collar jobs instead of white-collar jobs pushing papers in which those who do such work question not so much the quality of their bureaucratic behavior as the meaning of what they do even if such allows one to have a McMansion and a couple of expensive cars, private schools for their kids, costly vacations, and much the same sort of life for their kids after they graduate from the State University for which prole kids not only lack the means but would be ill-prepared if they did enroll due to bad K-12 education that ensures that those kids from not-so-privileged backgrounds would surely flunk out fast. We will be better off if people who do vehicle service and restaurant work can get paid enough to allow some dignity in life off the job instead of being consigned to poverty.

It may be ironic from someone like me to recognize (except for having some such people as ancestors in the 19th century who lived like them) that the people with the sanest economic lives are the Old Order Amish. That may not be one's ideal way of life, as it constrains learning and precludes access to such wonders as opera, but consider that their world has few filthy-rich people... and no bureaucracy. That also means a paucity of white-collar jobs and no chance of being a well-paid professional. Is that what it takes?

Or will we have a war or social implosion that destroys so much wealth that the soft white-collar jobs disappear because the money no longer flows that supports them?  Then survivors who have recently had such soft jobs will find themselves clearing rubble before they get to learn the rudiments of bricklaying or in finishing concrete to replace what used to be the offices in which they worked.  It is hard, honest work, but such is the basis of the prosperity that allows people to buy sports cars and pianos on installment accounts before people again have the means for buying sports cars and pianos.      

Quote:I never took the time to find the reason that these militia existed, but it's obvious that being in the north was no exception to the rule: radicalism grows organically anywhere people feel threatened or unappreciated.

I think of Willie Stark in All the King's Men tongue-lashing the ill-educated, economically-disadvantaged white men of Louisiana with the vile smears such as "hick", "hillbilly", "redneck", "peckerwood", and "cracker" only to remind those people that the economic elites who exploit them and hold them in contempt use those words to describe poor white people.  

Of course we liberals need to banish such words from our lexicon. Those words can hurt some people just like a certain word that rhymes with the name of Roy Rogers' horse... but like that word we white people are not truly free of it until we no longer think of that word.

[pbrower2a]

Jury Selection Starts In Michigan Governor Kidnap Plot

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jonker told prospective jurors: “This isn’t your average criminal case.”
Michael Tarm, Ed White and Sara Burnett
03/08/2022 02:05pm EST


GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — With secret recordings and other evidence, prosecutors are pledging to show how four men were united behind a wild plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor in response to her aggressive steps to slow down COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic.
Jury selection began Tuesday for a trial that could last more than a month in federal court in western Michigan, with U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jonker telling prospective jurors: “This isn’t your average criminal case” because of the extraordinary allegations of a plot against an elected official.


Jonker emphasized that prospective jurors must put aside any personal feelings about politics, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her administration’s response to COVID-19 to fairly hear the case, or they cannot serve. Two men were dismissed after the judge’s questions revealed a dislike of the Democratic governor, with one man saying, “I would probably be pretty biased.”
A few other people were dismissed due to job or home conflicts, including a nurse who worked throughout the pandemic. The woman said she finally has a trip planned and “I really want to go on vacation.” A man who said he has followed news coverage of the case intensely was let go after saying, “I think they’re guilty.”
In 2020, Whitmer was trading taunts with then-President Donald Trump over his administration’s response to COVID-19. Her critics, meanwhile, were regularly protesting at the Michigan Capitol, clogging streets around the statehouse and legally carrying semi-automatic rifles into the building.
During that turbulent time, when stay-home orders were in place and the economy was restricted, Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr. and Daniel Harris were coming up with a plot to snatch Whitmer, prosecutors say.


They’re accused of taking critical steps over several months, including secret messaging, gun drills in the woods and a night drive to northern Michigan to scout her second home and figure out how to blow up a bridge.
The FBI, which had infiltrated the group, said it thwarted the plan with the arrests of six men in October 2020. Two of them, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, have pleaded guilty and will appear as crucial witnesses for the government, giving jurors an inside view of what was planned.
Garbin, for example, said Fox, the alleged ringleader, wanted the men to chip in for a $4,000 explosive large enough to destroy a bridge near Whitmer’s home and distract police during a kidnapping.
“The blood of tyrants needs to be shed,” Garbin quoted Caserta as saying during a meeting.


Garbin and Franks insist no one in the group acted because of excessive influence by agents or undercover informants.
“It is not the end of the case for the defense, but it’s a big obstacle to overcome,” John Smietanka, a former federal prosecutor, said of the pair’s cooperation. “It’s going to come down to the credibility of witnesses plus the effect of any extrinsic evidence, like tapes.”
Indeed, prosecutors said much of the evidence will be the defendants’ own words gathered during secret recordings. The government will also offer screenshots of text messages as well as photos and videos posted on social media.
Ahead of the trial, defense lawyers panned the case, especially the “staggering use” of informants. They deny any conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer and have signaled an entrapment defense.
“The agents and snitches recruited the defendants, arranged meetings, paid for travel, paid for hotels, rented cars, produced promotional videos demonstrating explosives, purchased equipment, vetted new members, hatched the ideas and directed the operations,” said Joshua Blanchard, who is Croft’s attorney.
Defense lawyer Christopher Gibbons said Fox did not want to kidnap Whitmer, though he made “many inflammatory remarks” about the governor and what he considered to be unconstitutional acts.
Agents and informants were the “binding force and catalyst for every event, impassioned speech and nearly every suggestion of criminality,” Gibbons said in a court filing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said informants were paid to collect information, not to induce crimes.
“The things they recorded were the defendants’ own words. That’s what makes the defendants look guilty,” Kessler told a judge Friday.
A successful entrapment defense requires evidence that the government induced someone to commit a crime that they otherwise wouldn’t be inclined to carry out, Smietanka said.


Whitmer, who is seeking reelection this year, rarely talks publicly about the case and isn’t expected to attend the trial. After charges were filed in 2020, just weeks before the fall election, she accused Trump of “giving comfort” to antigovernment extremists with his rhetoric.
“The plots and threats against me, no matter how disturbing, could not deter me from doing everything I could to save as many lives as possible by listening to medical and health experts,” Whitmer said last summer, referring to COVID-19.
Separately, authorities in state court are prosecuting eight men who are accused of aiding the group.
___
White reported from Detroit and Burnett reported from Chicago.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial

[pbrower2a]

FBI: Accused wanted ‘tyrant’ Gov. Whitmer tied up on table

By ED WHITE

A key figure in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to restrain the “tyrant” on a table then pose for a photo “like we just made the biggest drug bust,” according to a secret recording played for jurors Thursday.

The trial of four men resumed in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after a three-day delay due to someone in the courtroom testing positive for COVID-19.

Agent Mark Schweers told the jury that he was posing as someone with like-minded views from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when he met Adam Fox in the basement of a vacuum shop in suburban Grand Rapids, a hideaway accessed by a trap door.

Fox didn’t know that Schweers was wearing a recording device as he talked excitedly about attacking the Michigan Capitol, teaming up with a militia called the Wolverine Watchmen, and restoring a “constitutional republic.”

“We want her flex-cuffed on a table while we all pose and get our pictures taken like we just made the biggest drug bust in ... history,” Fox said of Whitmer, laughing and using profanities.

https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-kidna...ab3a152066

[pbrower2a]

Snapshots of 4 men charged in Whitmer kidnapping plot

By ED WHITE, SARA BURNETT and MICHAEL TARM
[/url][img=1144x1300]https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/6f953636e05043ab979ce1132aeecf55/400.jpeg[/img]

FILE - This combination of photos provided by the Kent County Sheriff and the Delaware Department of Justice shows, top row from left, Brandon Caserta and Barry Croft; and bottom row from left, Adam Dean Fox and Daniel Harris. The four members of anti-government groups are facing trial in March 2022 on federal charges accusing them in a plot to abduct Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Jury selection begins Tuesday, March 8, 2022, in a trial the presiding judge at the U.S. District Court courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich., said could take over a month. (Kent County Sheriff, Delaware Department of Justice via AP File)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — After more than two days of testimony, jurors have unflattering snapshots of four men who are charged with planning to strike back against government by kidnapping Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her weekend home.

Prosecutors introduced videos, messages and secretly recorded conversations full of antigovernment screeds, mostly expressed by Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, who are described as the leaders. Evidence presented early in what’s likely to be a weekslong trial has bounced from Michigan to gatherings in Ohio and Wisconsin and an arrest in New Jersey — and not always in order.

“The pattern doesn’t always become clear until the end. ... Don’t feel pressure to try to pull it all together just yet,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told jurors March 10.
Croft, Fox, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are charged with conspiracy; three of them also face weapons-related charges. Lawyers have signaled an entrapment defense, claiming the men were cajoled by undercover FBI agents and zealous, greedy informants.
ADVERTISEMENT

Whitmer kidnap plot trial

[*]Key informant coming up in Gov. Whitmer kidnap trial

[*]FBI: Accused wanted 'tyrant' Gov. Whitmer tied up on table

[*]Snapshots of 4 men charged in Whitmer kidnapping plot

[*]Trial resuming for 4 men accused of Michigan governor plot


The trial is scheduled to resume Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was suspended earlier this week because an essential participant tested positive for COVID-19.
Here is some of what the jury has heard so far:
CROFT
[*]
The 46-year-old trucker from Bear, Delaware, is an adherent of the “boogaloo” movement, which believes the country is broken and that politicians “should be targeted and attacked,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth said.
[*]
Croft and Fox attended a meeting of allies in Dublin, Ohio, in July 2020. So did an informant who recorded Croft saying he was so devoted to an antigovernment cause, “I might murder a cop.”
[*]
Croft said he was even willing to slash his cheek in an effort to fool face-detection technology used by law enforcement.
“One criminal governor in our possession, we’ve captured the flag in that state. We can then start to issue terms,” Croft said in a video in May 2020.
Defense attorney Joshua Blanchard said Croft was targeted by thin-skinned FBI agents who simply didn’t like his disgust of government.
“There was no plan, there was no agreement and no kidnapping,” he said.
[*]
FOX
Fox, 38, of Wyoming, Michigan, was living in the basement of a vacuum shop and brushing his teeth next door at a restaurant. He was tapped by Croft to lead the plot, Roth said.
[*]
Prosecutors portrayed Fox as a man committed to violence. He said in a video that he was in favor of a “revolutionary war” to get rid of “corrupt, tyrannical government.”
Fox said he wanted to offer “constitutional comfort” to angry Michigan gym owners whose businesses were shut down for months to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Fitness centers, he said, were “essential for a lot of people’s mental health.”
[*]
In August 2020, according to the government, Fox scouted Whitmer’s cottage for the first time and said an attack would be a “nightmare” and a “shootout.” Prosecutors said he wanted to blow up a nearby bridge to stymie police during an abduction.
[*]
But defense attorney Christopher Gibbons said Fox was heavily influenced by an FBI informant known as “Big Dan,” who was a member of a militia known as the Wolverine Watchmen.
Dan “said things like, ‘You can train for everything but what’s your goal?’ The goal is what the government wants,” Gibbons told jurors, referring to entrapment.
[*]
HARRIS and CASERTA
[*]
They didn’t come up as much as Croft and Fox in the first two days of trial. But Roth said they were considered soldiers in Fox’s “kill squad.”
Harris, a former Marine infantryman, suggested killing Whitmer would be better than kidnapping her, perhaps “posing as a pizza delivery person and shooting her at home,” the prosecutor said.
[*]
Caserta’s home in Canton Township, Michigan, was full of antigovernment items, and he talked about crushing the governor’s skull, Roth said.
“You will hear him say, ’Whatever we do in the future, this is my personal choice to be involved here,’” Roth said.
Defense lawyers pointed out that Harris, 24, and Caserta, 33, didn’t join the others on the road trip to northern Michigan to look at Whitmer’s home, a key part of the government’s case. But they participated in firearms training sessions, including a “shoot house,” a mock-up of Whitmer’s house.
[*]
Attorney Julia Kelly said Harris of Lake Orion, Michigan, “was not perfect in the summer of 2020” but didn’t agree to kidnap the governor. Lawyer Michael Hills said Caserta participated in training but didn’t organize the “fed-sponsored events.”
[*]
Harris’ parents were in court, taking notes and frequently leaning over to whisper to Kelly.
[*]
Croft, Fox, Harris and Caserta were arrested in October 2020 along with two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and said no one was entrapped by agents or informants.
[*]
“They will tell you they made their own decisions,” Roth told the jury. “They will tell you the defendants did the same.”
Whitmer, who is seeking reelection this year, has blamed then-President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the plot. She said he was complicit in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
___
White reported from Detroit and Burnett reported from Chicago.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
[*][url=https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial]

[pbrower2a]

The trial continues with critical testimony.

Man in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot: No one twisted our arms

A second insider in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told jurors Thursday that the group was prepared to use a grenade launcher and machine gun to fight security officers at her vacation home.
Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty in February, backed up many points offered a day earlier by Ty Garbin, another man who admitted a role in a wild scheme to abduct Whitmer and somehow take her by boat out to Lake Michigan.
Franks, 27, said an alleged leader, Adam Fox, believed Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions were “tyrannical” and that the U.S. Constitution gave the men a right to strike back. He said no one was forced to stick with the plan and many people had dropped away by late summer 2020.
“I was going to be an operator,” Franks replied when asked by a prosecutor to describe his role in a kidnapping. “I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun.”
He said Fox talked about snatching the governor “every time I saw him.”
Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are on trial in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with Franks and Garbin, the four were arrested in October 2020, a month before the national election.


Garbin, 26, testified Wednesday that Whitmer’s kidnapping could serve as the “ignition” for a U.S. civil war involving antigovernment groups and possibly prevent the election of Joe Biden.
Authorities said the men were armed extremists who, after weeks of training, were trying to come up with $4,000 for an explosive. They practiced that summer by dashing in and out of crude structures built to resemble a house or office.
Traveling at night, they scouted Whitmer’s second home in Elk Rapids in September 2020 and inspected a bridge that could be blown up to frustrate any police response, according to trial testimony and conversations that were secretly recorded.
Croft “discussed attacking her security detail,” Franks told the jury. “He said he would use the grenade launcher that he had, and he was discussing mounting a machine gun on top of the truck.”
Franks, a drug rehabilitation coach, said he joined a militia, the Wolverine Watchmen, to work on his gun skills. He eventually met Fox and Croft, who were not members of the militia, and found himself in the middle of a conspiracy.
Franks said he stuck with the group because he hoped he would be killed in a shootout with police during the kidnapping but kept it from others.


“I no longer wanted to live,” he said, moments after settling into the witness chair. “A large portion of my family had died. I was struggling financially. Just wasn’t happy.”
Defense attorneys are trying to show the jury that there was no credible plot, just a lot of profane, violent and crazy talk about Whitmer and other politicians trampling their rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also claim informants and undercover agents who infiltrated the group entrapped the men.
During questioning by the defense, Garbin said there was discussion about taking Whitmer by boat to Lake Michigan after kidnapping her, then dumping the motor into the water and leaving her to drift.
But Garbin also acknowledged that the group didn’t have a boat lined up, and he wasn’t certain how they would get back to shore while the governor floated solo.
“The purpose of this was to be a massive inconvenience, right? Because she would just get picked up on the lake,” said Croft defense attorney Joshua Blanchard, referring to a rescue.
“At some point, yes,” Garbin replied.
Garbin, an airplane mechanic, began cooperating with prosecutors soon after the group was arrested. He was rewarded with a relatively light six-year prison sentence, a term that could be reduced after the trial. Franks hasn’t been sentenced yet but is also hoping for a break.
Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the case, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seem like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.
She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case. Whitmer has said Trump was complicit in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
___
White reported from Detroit.

[pbrower2a]

Jurors on Tuesday saw chilling social media posts by two people charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, including references to hanging public officials and attacking authorities, even if it might end in death.
“The government has stolen enough from me,” Brandon Caserta said on Facebook in late March 2020, a few weeks after COVID-19 hit the state and around the same time that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer began a series of economic restrictions to fight the spread.
“They’ve claimed ownership over my body and my property,” he said. “Now they take away my place to live and source of income because of this?”
In the months that followed, Caserta and others trained to snatch Whitmer from her vacation home, according to evidence, before the FBI arrested the antigovernment extremists in October 2020.
Digital maps of the Elk Rapids area were saved on the phone of Adam Fox, 38, an alleged leader of the scheme, agent Chelsea Williams told jurors Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors are poised to finish their case Wednesday, which will be the 13th day of trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They’re trying to show in the final stretch that four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer were firmly committed to a plan without influence by informants or undercover FBI agents.


Barry Croft Jr., a 46-year-old trucker from Bear, Delaware, regularly vented on Facebook about government and public officials in 2020 when governors were issuing stay-home orders, requiring masks and making other rules during the early leg of the pandemic.
“Which governor is going to end up dragged off and hung for treason first?” Croft wrote on Memorial Day 2020. ”It’s really a spin-the-bottle match at this point and I’m sure a few mayors are in the running!!! God bless the constitutional republic!!!”
A few days later, Croft posted about seizing state Capitols and “putting these tyrants’ addresses out here for rioters.”
The FBI said that message was “liked” on Facebook by Fox. Daniel Harris, 24, and Caserta, 33, are also charged with kidnapping conspiracy.
Defense lawyers deny there was an actual plan to snatch Whitmer, claiming the men were induced by agents and informants and exchanged wild talk while smoking marijuana.
Facebook posts written by Caserta and entered into evidence were dark. He called the governor a “psychopath” and said the purpose of the Second Amendment is the “ability to kill agents of the government when they become tyrannical.”
“I may kill dozens of agents but eventually die in the process,” Caserta wrote separately in May 2020. “I will not be chipped and I will not be vaccinated even if that means losing everything I have.”

Three months later, Caserta said he would shoot “tyrants” after beating them with his hands and feet, letting them “beg til they couldn’t beg any more because their mouth is so full of blood.”
“There is no remorse for immoral cowards,” Caserta said. “Empathy is only reserved for the good.”
Defense attorney Michael Hills noted, however, that none of the messages referred to kidnapping Whitmer.
Attorney Joshua Blanchard has accused the FBI of targeting Croft because agents didn’t like his strident views. He referred to a meme posted by Croft of ammunition with the message, “Oh, look, 30 votes that count.”
“A little tongue in cheek? A little bit funny?” Blanchard asked FBI agent Thomas Szymanski.
“I didn’t laugh when I saw this meme,” the agent replied.
Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the kidnapping plot, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seem like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.
She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case. Whitmer has said Trump was complicit in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.


https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-kidna...05a702d071

[pbrower2a]

Defense attorneys quickly rested their case Thursday after one of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly said “absolutely not” when asked if he had agreed to abduct her before the 2020 election.

Daniel Harris was the only defendant to speak to jurors on the 14th day of trial. It was a risky, dramatic shift following days of testimony from undercover FBI agents, a gutsy informant and two men who have pleaded guilty and pointed fingers at the rest.

Closing arguments were planned for Friday.

Harris, Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., and Brandon Caserta are accused of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan because of their disgust with government and her tough COVID-19 restrictions.

Only Harris’ lawyer offered a few witnesses Wednesday after prosecutors finished presenting their evidence that same day.

Harris, 24, a former Marine, said he wanted to maintain his infantry skills when he joined a militia, the Wolverine Watchmen, not snatch Whitmer or blow up a nearby bridge.

But after friendly questions from a defense lawyer, the atmosphere in court turned tense as a prosecutor confronted Harris with his chat messages about posing as a pizza deliveryman and killing Whitmer at the door. He also reminded Harris that he worked with explosives while training with the group.

Harris and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth sometimes talked over each other. At one point, Harris snapped, “Next question.”

“Everyone can take it down a notch,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said later.

Soon after swearing to tell the truth, Harris repeatedly rejected claims that he was involved in crimes. He said “America was on fire” in 2020 over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, protests over police treatment of Black people and a pandemic that shut down parts of the economy.

A key part of the government’s case is a firearms training weekend at Luther, Michigan, in September 2020 with a “shoot house” that was intended to replicate Whitmer’s second home. Harris admitted that he brought materials but said he didn’t build it with her house in mind.

“Did you agree to kidnap the governor of Michigan?” defense attorney Julia Kelly asked many times.

“Absolutely not,” Harris replied.

He didn’t participate in an evening ride to Elk Rapids, Michigan, to scout Whitmer’s second home and a bridge during that same training weekend. Harris said he had purchased $200 of cheap beer and cigarettes so he could return to the camp and “get wasted” with others.

“I had assumed they went to a strip club or a bar,” Harris said of Fox and Croft.

The men were arrested in October 2020 amid talk of raising $4,000 for an explosive that could blow up a bridge and hold back police from responding to a kidnapping, according to trial testimony.

Defense attorneys claim the men simply were engaged in a lot of wild talk fueled by agents and informants but no conspiracy.

The prosecutor covered much ground during Harris’ cross-examination, often referring to recordings or text messages to challenge testimony. Roth noted that Harris had said the Founding Fathers would have approved of killing certain officials.

“Tyrants,” Harris told Roth.

“Was Gov. Whitmer a tyrant?” the prosecutor asked.

“Not really. She was just a governor to me,” Harris said, adding that she performed “poorly.”

Prosecutors played a conversation of Croft talking about militias overthrowing governments in various states and “breaking a few eggs.”

“When this man talks to you at a diner about killing people, you don’t stand up and walk out, do you sir?” Roth asked. “You don’t say, ‘This group is not for me,’ do you sir?”

“No,” Harris answered.

Two more men, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators. Garbin last week said the group acted willingly and hoped to strike before the election, cause national chaos and prevent Joe Biden from winning the presidency.

Michael Rataj, a Detroit-area defense lawyer not involved in the case, said sometimes bringing in a pack of witnesses for the defense doesn’t always fit. He said attorneys for the four men will peck away at the government’s evidence during closing arguments — “the textbook way to do it.”

As for Harris testifying, Rataj said it can be dicey.

“The FBI has recorded them, and for him to say anything different than what’s recorded makes it look like he’s lying,” Rataj said. “It’s foolishness.”

Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the kidnapping plot, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seemed like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.

She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case. Whitmer has said Trump was complicit in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

___

Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial

___

White reported from Detroit. AP reporter Michael Tarm contributed from Chicago.

https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-kidna...fb39ad82df

[pbrower2a]

Except to say that this is one of the most important cases in American criminal history that relates to a potentially nation-shaking incident, I am going to leave the next interpretations, especially of guilt or innocence and any sentencing, to the persons deputized with such responsibilities: the jury and the judges.

I follow this case closely, and not only because I live in the State of Michigan.

[pbrower2a]

I can make this comment: the one defendant who took the stand seems to have made a serious blunder in being caught in lies while answering softball questions from his defense attorney. Ordinarily a defendant on trial has said or done more than enough to bring suspicion upon him, and only can rarely can he improve his position. Were I a defense attorney I would strongly urge practically any defendant to not testify on his behalf during the trial of guilt or innocence. Perhaps during the sentencing phase should there be mitigating factors such as childhood trauma.

[pbrower2a]

It's up to the jury now to decide guilt and innocence. At this point the jury verdict will decide much.

[pbrower2a]

The jury is still deadlocked on some charges on Friday, April 8.

[pbrower2a]

Two acquitted, hung jury on the others. Maybe law enforcement overplayed its cards.

https://apnews.com/article/whitmer-kidna...8a51f107fb

We may be entering the bleakest part of the Crisis now as getting away with terrorist plots against political figures that one dislikes is not a sure means to personal demise. The kidnapper and the assassin may now become big players in American politics.

[Eric the Green]

Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow speaks out against Michigan plot against Gov. Whitmer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/go...cna1242811

Mallory McMorrow speaks out against Republican culture wars in this "viral" video:





PS Her horoscope score in 2022 as a potential US presidential candidate is 13-7. Just FYI

Just in case people like me don't know this latest culture-war smear term: " "Child grooming" is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse." --wikipedia

[Eric the Green]

Mallory McMorrow talks with Morning Joe about her "viral" speech about Republican hate.

[beechnut79]

(04-22-2022, 06:29 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow speaks out against Michigan plot against Gov. Whitmer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/go...cna1242811

Mallory McMorrow speaks out against Republican culture wars in this "viral" video:





PS Her horoscope score in 2022 as a potential US presidential candidate is 13-7. Just FYI

Just in case people like me don't know this latest culture-war smear term: " "Child grooming" is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse." --wikipedia

Is her HS above or below average?