Free Republic

Stephen Robeson, an FBI informant who helped stage the phony kidnapping hoax of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is being hit with fraud charges. Robeson was charged last week for allegedly defrauding a couple out of an SUV by convincing them to donate it to a fake charity. His wife, Kimberly, has also been charged. They will face up to three years in prison with fines up to $10,000 if they are convicted. Court records indicate that Robeson was particularly instrumental in setting up the phony kidnapping plot of Whitmer that was used as an “October Surprise” of sorts before the...

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — A lead investigator in the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pleaded no contest Monday to assaulting his wife, though he said he has no memory of it.Kalamazoo County prosecutors struck a deal with former FBI agent Richard Trask after his wife declined to cooperate further.Trask was accused of assaulting his wife at their Kalamazoo-area home in July. She had lacerations on her head and blood on her chest, arms and hand, sheriff’s investigators wrote.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reacts to Enbridge lawsuit "I take full responsibility for my actions which caused pain and suffering to my...

The FBI agent credited with thwarting the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been fired from the agency after domestic violence allegations were levied against him. According to The Detroit News, Special Agent Richard Trask was fired last week while awaiting trial on charges of assault with intent to do bodily harm and allegations that he beat his wife’s head against a nightstand following an argument caused by a swingers party they attended. The firing of the law enforcement officer comes amid questions concerning potential misconduct by the FBI during the kidnapping investigation, and whether as many as...

Leading up to the events of 9/11, there was probably no federal agency with a higher public stature than the FBI:... But today, after two decades of failure, embarrassment, mendacity, favoritism, political partisanship, incompetent leadership and exasperating sanctimony about a “higher loyalty,” the Bureau’s moral reputation lies in tatters. Whether it was former Director James Comey sanctimoniously dithering in public over Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016, to former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s misleading of investigators about his role in leaking confidential memos to the news media, to the illicit lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page cooing about an “insurance policy”...

A special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation involved in the operation that resulted in a group of men being charged for allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was criminally charged on Monday in connection to a domestic incident. Richard Trask was arraigned in a Michigan court on one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, less than a murder charge, after a domestic incident with his wife on Sunday and subsequently released on a $10,000 recognizance bond, according to the Detroit News. Trask, 39, began his stint at the FBI in 2011 and...

Accused conspirators charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also discussed "taking" Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, an FBI agent testified at a court hearing Tuesday. During the hearing in Grand Rapids, Mich., to discuss the charges filed last week against members of a self-proclaimed militia accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, FBI Special Agent Richard Trask revealed that months ago some of the suspects met in Dublin, Ohio, where Northam, also a Democrat, was discussed as a potential target.