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Three members of a Michigan Hutaree militia group are getting back 60 guns between them, including rifles, handguns, shotguns, and AK47s. Thomas Piatek, Tina Stone, and Michael Meeks were arrested as part of an FBI raid because of their involvement in plotting an anti-government revolt. The courts determined that the state was unable to prove its case, so these three and several others were acquitted and set free. Now that they're out of custody they're ready to get their weapons back. Piatek's attorney, Arthur Weiss, explains that Piatek still has a Second Amendment right to own those firearms and the...

“A federal judge acquitted seven members of the Hutaree militia Tuesday of the most serious charges following six weeks of testimony in a high-profile terror case,” The Detroit News reported yesterday. On the second anniversary of the Hutaree arrests, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts granted a defense motion to acquit the militia members on seven charges, including seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Still open are some weapons charges “against Hutaree leader David Stone Sr. and his son.” It’s a stunning defeat for Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department, which made great media hay of the...

The primary mission of this department is to prevent terrorist attacks on our nation. The document on right-wing extremism sent last week by this department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis is one in an ongoing series of assessments to provide situational awareness to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies on the phenomenon and trends of violent radicalization in the United States. I was briefed on the general topic, which is one that struck a nerve as someone personally involved in the Timothy McVeigh prosecution.

DETROIT — A federal judge on Tuesday gutted the government’s case against seven members of a Michigan militia, dismissing the most serious charges in an extraordinary defeat for federal authorities who insisted they had captured homegrown rural extremists poised for war. U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said the members’ expressed hatred of law enforcement didn’t amount to a conspiracy to rebel against the government. The FBI had secretly planted an informant and an FBI agent inside the Hutaree militia starting in 2008 to collect hours of anti-government audio and video that became the cornerstone of the case.

DETROIT — A federal judge dismissed the most serious charges Tuesday against seven members of a Michigan militia who were rounded up as homegrown extremists accused of plotting war against the U.S., saying their expressed hatred of law enforcement didn’t amount to conspiracy against the government. The decision is an embarrassment for the government, which secretly planted an informant and an FBI agent inside the Hutaree militia four years ago and claimed members were armed for war in rural southern Michigan.

Huron, OH militia, aka Hutaree Friday, May 13, 2011 Federal prosecutors believe one of nine members of a Lenawee County based militia is not mentally competent to stand trial. Tuesday, June 22, 2010 A federal appeals court says five members of a Michigan-based militia will stay in jail while awaiting trial on many charges, including conspiracy to overthrow the government. Tuesday, June 08, 2010 A federal appeals court in Ohio will hear arguments on whether five members of a Michigan-based militia should stay in jail until they're tried on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

An Adrian gun dealer who gained national media attention after federal prosecutors alleged he was affiliated with Hutaree militia members, was acquitted of a gun charge Thursday by a federal jury in Detroit, court records show. Walter Priest, 53, the owner of Gun Outfitters LLC was found not guilty of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He was accused of selling a rifle with a partial serial number to a Lansing area man on July 4, 2008. Priest was indicted in April and was out on a $100,000 unsecured bond. “I’m thrilled,” Priest said. “The power of the...

An appeals court has reversed a lower court ruling to free all Hutaree militia members pending trial. From The Michigan Messenger: A three-judge panel for the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court ruling granting a release on bond for the five remaining members of the Hutaree 9 still in custody pending a trial on charges of seditious conspiracy. But it was not a unanimous decision for two of the members: The appeals court was partially divided, with all three judges agreeing that David and Joshua Stone and Michael Meeks should be held in jail pending trial....

Reuters is reporting new charges added by the prosecution against the Hutaree: The new 15-count indictment adds several weapons-related charges not contained in the previous indictment against the militia group. What kind of weapons? The new indictment adds 10 weapons charges including possession of machineguns and unregistered rifles and use of firearms during a violent crime. According to the new indictment federal agents seized from defendants' homes in March machineguns, unregistered short-barreled rifles and over 148,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as "a variety of explosives and related items capable of being readily assembled to build several types of destructive...

Kristopher T. Sickles (AP/Paul Sancya) "Three of nine members of a Midwest militia accused of conspiring to overthrow the government were released from jail Tuesday," reports Ed White of the Associated Press. And now today, a fourth member, Kristopher T. Sickles of Ohio has been released. Read the initial story here and the follow-up here. Then assess these developments in light of what we've discussed here at Gun Rights Examiner recently: Court: Hutaree to stay jailed for now Why would prosecutor 'misrepresent' conditions of Hutaree bond release? Hutaree release blocked—for how long? Does freeing of Hutaree on bond tell us...

Members of the Hutaree militia accused of conspiracy to commit sedition must remain behind bars pending pretrial release arguments. From The Associated Press: The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said Monday that it was continuing a temporary stay of a Detroit federal judge’s decision to free members of the militia pending trial. For how long? Per the Detroit Free Press: Federal prosecutors, who appealed the decision of U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, have until May 17 to file arguments and defense lawyers have until May 24. Lawyers on both sides also can request to...

Flash back to the end of March, when the authorities hauled in nine members of the Hutaree, a Christian paramilitary group, and charged them with plotting a mass assassination of police officers. The media quickly added the arrests to the ongoing narrative of "rising right-wing violence," with the Michigan-based militants cast as the leading edge of a smoldering paramilitary threat. Newscasters and columnists touted a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) claiming that the number of anti-government "Patriot" organizations is skyrocketing. An "astonishing 363 new Patriot groups appeared in 2009," the center declared, "with the totals going from...

As Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born American, grabbed international headlines last week for an alleged terrorism attempt in New York's Times Square, other suspected terrorists received much less media coverage as they appeared before a judge in Detroit. The judge ruled that all nine white, American-born members of the Hutaree Christian militia group, charged with conspiracy to commit sedition and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, should be released on bail while awaiting trial. Federal authorities charged that the militia intended to kill a police officer and then detonate improvised explosive devices at the officer's funeral in the hope of...

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet, "Hutaree’s central goal, … commit some violent act to draw the attention of law enforcement or government officials which would prompt a response by law enforcement… "Leader David Stone Sr. preached the need for an uprising against the government. “There is no requirement that the United State establish that there was an imminent harm, Rather, that it must simply show an agreement to oppose by force the authority of the United States.” Today, the Government filed a Notice of Appeal (Doc. #143). The Government (has) failed to persuade the Court that Defendants must be detained...

In a very interesting and highly unusual development, a court official from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has filed an affidavit with the appeals court disputing claims made by the government prosecutors in their court filings in the Hutaree case. Alan H. Murray, the Chief Pretrial Services Officer for the Eastern District of Michigan, filed the document to correct a claim made by the prosecutors in one of their briefs arguing that the Hutaree 9 should be denied bond and kept in jail pending trial. Specifically, the prosecutors have asserted that the “home detention” provision...

On Monday we discussed a federal judge granting bond for alleged members of the Hutaree militia group, after the lead FBI agent in charge of the investigation could not remember details of the case to recount in court. Their release has been halted. From Courthouse News Service: The 6th Circuit on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of nine members of a militia group accused of plotting to kill police officers and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. ...[T]he Cincinnati-based federal appeals court granted the government's emergency motion, "pending further review and order of the court." Why? "They pose a...

Earlier this week, on May 3rd, we witnessed liberty in action: a Clinton-appointed federal judge took the government to task over its continued holding of the Hutaree “Christian militia” members in Michigan. They can try to spin it any way they want, but the government lost this one, big-time. There are two fundamental rights implicated in the judge’s ruling — free speech, and the right to a reasonable bail. Both of these fundamental, constitutionally protected rights are absolutely vital to our system of ordered liberty, and to the very existence of our republican form of government. Judge Roberts’ ruling thus...

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal appeals court has stopped the release of nine jailed Michigan militia members accused of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued an emergency stay Thursday morning.

"Judge grants bond for Hutaree militia members," The Detroit News headline reads. A federal judge has found that all nine members of the Hutaree accused of plotting a violent battle with government forces should be released from custody pending their trials. Go ahead and read the rest of the article for the judge's statement and the conditions of release. What I want to bring up here is a discussion we had over at The War on Guns last week about this article: FBI agent short on details on militia inquiry An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan...

The AP reports that nine members of the Hutaree militia group accused of plotting against the government can be released until their trial. The nine members of the Christina militia group were indicted in March on multiple charges involving an alleged plot to attack police, including seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction. Here's the ruling:Link to Order

Federal prosecutors trying to keep nine militia members in jail said Thursday that they don't need to show there was imminent danger when they charged them with plotting war against the government. In a court filing, prosecutors responded to a judge's concern that they haven't revealed a specific strategy against the U.S. by nine members of the Michigan-based Hutaree militia.

DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge challenged prosecutors Wednesday to show that nine members of a Michigan militia accused of plotting war against the government had done more than just talk and should remain locked up. U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts heard nearly 10 hours of testimony and arguments over two days. She did not make a decision about whether the nine will remain in custody, saying only that a ruling would come soon. The members of a southern Michigan group called Hutaree have been in custody for a month. An indictment accuses them of weapons violations and a rare...

DETROIT - An FBI agent who led the investigation of nine Michigan militia members charged with trying to launch war against the federal government couldn't recall many details of the two-year probe yesterday during questioning by defense lawyers. Even the judge who must decide whether to release the nine until trial was puzzled. "I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn't know anything," U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said after agent Leslie Larsen confessed she hadn't reviewed her notes recently and couldn't remember specific details of the case.

"An FBI surveillance tape obtained by NPR provides a glimpse into Stone's view of the vast conspiracy burbling in the shadows. In the tape, he says he could see local cops joining forces with foreign soldiers to take over the U.S. "Do I think all the cops out here would — they would fight right alongside some Chinese trooper, heck yeah," he says on one of the tapes. "It's all about power. It's about the authority. They see us as the little people." The tape was made in February while the group was driving to Kentucky to attend a militia...

DETROIT – Federal agents investigating what they describe as a Christian militia bent on violence against police seized suspected crack cocaine and steroids, weapons, gas masks and a book of Adolf Hitler's speeches during raids of members' homes last month, according to search warrant records. The raids were conducted over a 4 1/2-hour span in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana on the night of March 27. Authorities recovered hand grenade instructions and schematics, a container of potassium chlorate and other items during a raid that night at the southern Michigan home of David Stone, the suspected leader of the Hutaree.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on Islamic-American Relations of Michigan, on Sunday said that the FBI foiled a plot to attack and kill Muslim-Americans. Walid was attending the group's 10th anniversary banquet in Dearborn, Michigan where the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson was keynote speaker. Muslim leaders in Chicago are "following developments of the arrests with great interest and concern," says Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR Chicago. "If some of the initial reports are true. Then, these radical groups are a chilling indication that anti-Muslim hysteria in some circles may be developing into stages of organized terroristic activity,"...

Detroit, Michigan (CNN) -- Not-guilty pleas were entered Wednesday in federal court in Detroit on behalf of eight militia members accused of plotting to kill police officers as part of a revolt against the federal government. "This is not about militias or a group of militias, but about a group conspiring against the U.S. who have shared beliefs that the New World Order elitists are in charge and seek to have one world government and is working with the U.S. government," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet said in his opening statement. "Any law enforcement officer is a foot soldier for...

FBI officials see little chance the arrests of nine suspects in an alleged Christian militia plot will spur other anti-government extremists to launch their own violent attacks. Suspected members of a group that called itself Hutaree were allegedly plotting to kill police officers. The suspects were captured over the weekend in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. The FBI issued a bulletin to police departments saying they have picked up Internet chatter among other militia groups — including some expressing sympathy for the suspects — but few signs of criminal copycats.

The F.B.I.’s raids against members of a Michigan-based Christian militia over the weekend added to concerns about rising far-right activity across the country. Nine members of the group, called the Hutaree, face sedition and weapons charges in a scheme to kill law enforcement officers to incite an antigovernment revolt. As the government deals with the re-emerging militia movement, what did it learn from the experiences of the 1990s, from the disastrous sieges in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993 to its handling of Oklahoma City bombing case? Jess Walter, author,...

This Week in Progressive Media Who is more of a threat, left-wing crazies or right-wing crazies? For its coverage of the Hutaree Militia story, Firedoglake.com carries Rachel Maddow’s extensive reporting of the FBI infiltration and capture of the members of the violent Christian militia group. Maddow tries to gauge the seriousness of their threat, describing the oddly named militia as a “strange combination of absurd and scary” with names “out of a Calvin and Hobbes strip” but spends 10 minutes exploring who they are and the charges against them. Are they representative of other right-wing groups? A guest on her...

Members of a US Christian militia group linked to a murder plot celebrated a wedding by dressing in camouflage fatigues and posing with guns, newly discovered Facebook photos have revealed. Nine members of the Michigan-based Hutaree militia group have been charged with seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction. The Hutaree militia are alleged to have plotted to kill a police officer and attack his funeral with homemade bombs in hopes it would provoke an uprising against the government. A day after members of the Christian militant outfit were arrested, wedding photos of two of the accused...

It seems as if the only topic that the Media Wants to talk about is what they perceive as the "violence" in the Tea Party movement. Obama apologists such as the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center have written bogus reports about the Tea Party Movement, saying that the movement is leading to an increase of violence in the country. Heck even Larry King is getting into the act, interviewing Dana Loesch last night, trying to get her to say that the tea party is all about violence (of course he was not successful, see video below). Earlier this...

Free speech groups are up in arms today over a statement by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow concerning the arrest of the members of the Hutaree militia. Maddow maintains that 'they didn't have to do anything to be found guilty': Interesting thing about seditious conspiracy, you don‘t actually have to be caught actively trying to wage war on the United States in order to be found guilty of seditious conspiracy. Planning it, conspiring, even if you don‘t do anything about it, is enough to be guilty of that.

Katie Couric's report this evening on CBS News focused on the group's problems with ObamaCare, high taxes, the increasing power of the federal government, and other issues that are associated with conservatives in general. The end-game, of course, is to paint with a broad brush any conservative or Tea Party member as a potential homegrown terrorist who is probably a member of a militia that is seeking to kill cops. And, in fact, this line of attack is precisely the one used by Barack Obama himself this morning on NBC's Today Show, when he stated that the 'core group' of...

As a powerful political counter-stroke it was masterful. You have to give them credit. Putting a provocateur into a group of not-very-well wrapped Millennialists (see Churchill, To Shake Their Guns in the Tyrants Face) and assisting them to: a. build and distribute pipe bombs and b. talk about plots to kill cops that involve killing innocents, family members, etc., was well thought out, perfectly targeted, craftily planned, brilliantly executed and impeccably timed. I realized this when I was outside talking to the three cops who showed up at my door to collect the birdshit Easter card. To begin with, the...

DETROIT (AP) - Nine alleged members of a Christian militia group that was girding for battle with the Antichrist were charged Monday with plotting to kill a police officer and slaughter scores more by bombing the funeral - all in hopes of touching off an uprising against the U.S. government. Seven men and one woman believed to be part of the Michigan-based Hutaree were arrested over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, and another was still being sought. Authorities blocked off a rural area Monday evening about 30 miles from the site of Saturday's raid near Adrian...

I see the insertion of "RIGHT WING" in the case, at CBS and in other "mainstream" media outlet (MSM), it's not only ufair, unjust and false, but it's part of the 'left' campaign of demonization of the 'right.'

Contrary to popular assumptions in today's news media and schools of journalism, the primary goal of a reporter is to seek out and report the truth. A free society is contingent to a large degree on a free press, provided that press freely does its job as it was intended. Thus, despite the government's contention that the ATF/FBI raid of the Hutaree militia group in Michigan over the weekend was due to supposed 'plots to kill police and overthrow the government,' troubling questions remain about the government's handling of this case. The question, therefore, is, 'What is the real truth...

Members of a militia charged with plotting to kill police were not Christian or a militia, a man acquainted with the group said Tuesday. "This is a group that I would classify as neither a militia or a Christian group," said Michael Lackomar, a member of the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia. "They're really a fringe group outside of anything we do.

WHEATLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Members of a rural Michigan-based Christian militia who believed a battle with the Antichrist was coming were plotting to attack police officers in hopes of fomenting a violent uprising against the government, federal prosecutors alleged. Seven men and one woman believed to be part of the group called Hutaree were arrested over the weekend after raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The ninth suspect was arrested Monday night after a search in southern Michigan and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday. FBI agents moved quickly against Hutaree because its members were planning an attack sometime...

Timing on Hutaree Raid Troubling - Is this the long anticipated beginning of Obama stifling "right wing" dissent? March 29, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In this administration nothing happens by accident, at least at the public relations level and DOJ's widely reported raid this last weekend on a group with extremely limited previous public visibility [the Hutaree, a tiny Michigan based group] might well be similarly tainted. The defendants, David Brian Stone, David Brian Stone Jr., Joshua Matthew Stone, Tina Mae Stone, Joshua John Clough, Michael David Meeks, Thomas William Piatek, Kristopher T. Sickes and Jacob...

Members called him "Captain Hutaree" or, somewhat cryptically, "RD." A federal indictment calls him the “principal leader” of the Hutaree militia – an extremist group federal authorities say was preparing to "levy war" against the US government by killing police officers. He is David Brian Stone, and early media accounts sketch a portrait of a man pulled increasing toward the militia movement and its radical fringe. His ex-wife said she left him because he "got carried away." Federal authorities allege that he researched how to build roadside bombs on the Internet. And at least one neighbor said the group that...

Detroit News cannot be posted as per copyright complaint. Sorry. Go to Drudge Report for the link to the article. It is worth the effort. Here is the heading to search for: Indictment: Militia members sought to 'levy war' against USA...

The Hutaree militia and the rising risk of far-right violence By Eugene Robinson Tuesday, March 30, 2010 ....By contrast, there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, "constitutionalists," tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold "Christian" values. Most of the groups that posed a real danger, as the Hutaree allegedly did, have been infiltrated and dismantled by authorities before they could do any damage. But we should never forget that the worst act of domestic terrorism ever committed in this country was authored by a member of the government-hating...

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Note: The following text is a quote: Nine Members of a Militia Group Charged with Seditious Conspiracy and Related Offenses Six Michigan residents, along with two residents of Ohio and a resident of Indiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena announced today. The five-count indictment, which was unsealed today, charges that between August 2008 and the...

The Michigan-based militia group charged with conspiring to kill police officers is preparing for battle with the Antichrist, according to a Web site purportedly run by the group.. The Michigan-based militia group charged with conspiring to kill police officers is preparing for battle with the Antichrist, according to a Web site purportedly run by the group. "Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment," Hutaree.com reads. "The only thing on earth to save the testimony and those who follow it, are the members of the testimony, til the return of Christ...

(CNN) -- Nine suspected members of a militia group were charged Monday with seditious conspiracy and related charges in an alleged plot to kill a Michigan law enforcement officer and then attack other officers at his funeral, federal prosecutors said. A federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, indicted six Michigan residents, two Ohioans and an Indianan on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge, announced. The five-count indictment...

No link yet, only from live broadcast: In a press release just handed to Fox by the FBI, the six Michigan residents, two from Ohio, one from Indiana are charged with “seditious conspiracy.� Reportedly, Hutaree is accused of attempted use of weapons of mass destruction. Charges range from August 2008 to today.The militia group Hutaree are said to have conspired to oppose by force the authority of the US Government. The members viewed local, state and federal law enforcement as "the brotherhood," also known as their enemy, and have been preparing, the FBI says, to engage them in armed...

Adrian, Mich. (AP) - A Christian militia group was a target of at least one of a series of weekend raids the FBI conducted in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, a Michigan militia leader says. The FBI said Sunday that it had conducted raids in the three states, resulting in at least three arrests. Federal warrants were sealed, but a federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of those arrested face gun charges and officials are pursuing other suspects. Some of the suspects were expected in court Monday. It wasn't clear what prompted the raids, but Michael...