The attorneys of four men charged with attempting to kidnap Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer claim that the FBI informants entrapped the men. They supplied their clients with drugs and then planned the kidnapping for them.
The attorneys say informants rented hotel rooms, supplied food, liquor, and food to the four men. Attorneys say they did it to convince the men to take part in the plot.
Entrapment is illegal and the FBI might have gone over the line.
The defendants did make damaging remarks about Whitmer during the meetings but denied they were agreeing to kidnap Governor Whitmer.
According to their defense lawyers, the FBI arranged everything, from planning to recon to supplying weapons.
The prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Roth acknowledged the roles of the informants but said that giving these men the opportunity to commit a crime does not constitute entrapment.
The informants rented the hotel room and fueled the men with free alcohol, drugs, and food. At least one of the would-be kidnappers was homeless.
Adam Fox, an accused ringleader of a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, posted online about being ready for a second Civil War. It was months before first meeting federal informants, an FBI agent testified Thursday. He wanted to squelch the idea that they were not predisposed to commit the crime.
Social media posts are now used to convict people.
THE SECRET RECORDINGS DURING A DRUG-FUELED RAGE
Secret recordings appear very damning:
Jurors heard dramatic, secret recordings of another accused ringleader, Delaware trucker Barry Croft, 46. He talked about attacking Whitmer and killing her bodyguards. This was to take place during a coordinated attack at her Northern Michigan cottage. It would involve destroying the communications tower and firing artillery.
“There’s a tornado spinning through the community and — wham! — a quick precise grab of that f—— governor,” Croft said in a June 2020 conversation recorded by an FBI informant.
“Here’s the thing about a precise group of seven men prepared for the job, with snipers shooting at heat signatures, dropping f—— armed guards before we approach the house,”Croft added. “All that’s left breathing is her.”
Croft’s attorney Joshua Blanchard said that one FBI informant routinely plied men with marijuana before switching on his recording device. It was a “selectively recording” of the men after getting them “worked up.”
THE MISFITS
Attorney Christopher Gibbons described his client, Adam Fox, as a “misfit” whose behavior is “understandable why it would raise suspicions.” But, Gibbons insisted, Fox did not agree to any conspiracy and, instead, he was used by an FBI informant who was receiving “envelopes of cash” to keep the investigation into the defendants going.
Fox was duped by federal “parlor tricks,” Gibbons said.
The crime was never carried out.
REMEMBER THE FIRST PROTEST
It is an interesting defense because the Governor and her Democrat machine wanted to destroy the militias and protesters who went to the Michigan Capitol building armed. The protest was peaceful but the protesters barged into the building.
Michigan allows open carry.
The protesters were upset about her Draconian lockdown orders.
Officials hunted for militia members to put on trial and then they found them.
At least one of the accused would-be kidnappers has Antifa leanings. But he loves all people and hates Trump. At the time, the media claimed they were Trump supporters.
More on the ideology of one of the men who was busted by the FBI for a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer. In this video he poses in front of an anarchist flag to tell people that the Declaration of Independence is an anarchist document. Brandon Caserta is an anarchist. pic.twitter.com/7PgQkYrNIQ
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 8, 2020
Then there is this ringleader with a strange ideology:
I was able to get video of another men arrested in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. This guy, Pete Musico, says races shouldn’t be fighting each other, we’re all the same, government is the real enemy and he attacks police just like Brandon Caserta. Similar ideology. pic.twitter.com/eRQ77p4NMl
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 8, 2020
It makes one wonder.
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