Free Republic

In a fiery exchange last month, CNN anchorwoman Abby Phillip told GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that there was “no evidence” to support his claim that federal agents abetted protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Ramaswamy shot back that the FBI conspicuously has never denied that law enforcement agents were on duty in the crowd. He argued that federal officials have repeatedly “lied” to the American people about not only that investigation but one that has gotten much less attention: the alleged failed plot to kidnap and kill Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in 2020.“It was entrapment,” Ramaswamy...

In a fiery exchange last month, CNN anchorwoman Abby Phillip told GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that there was “no evidence” to support his claim that federal agents abetted protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Ramaswamy shot back that the FBI conspicuously has never denied that law enforcement agents were on duty in the crowd. He argued that federal officials have repeatedly “lied” to the American people about not only that investigation but one that has gotten much less attention: the alleged failed plot to kidnap and kill Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in 2020. “It was...

The last three men to stand trial in connection with a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have been found not guilty on all counts.Eric Molitor and twin brothers William Null and Michael Null were among the 14 men charged in state and federal court over the alleged plan to kidnap the governor at her vacation home in Antrim County in 2020, largely over the Democratic governor's strict COVID-19 shutdowns.Molitor, 39, and the Null brothers, both 41, had pleaded not guilty to state charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and illegally possessing firearms.

Sworn FBI testimony in the trial of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer has revealed that the FBI played such an integral role in hatching the alleged plot that they even trained the men to kidnap the Governor. An undercover FBI informant trained men to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, according to the sworn testimony of FBI agent Henrick Impola, which came as part of the ongoing trial of three men who are accused, along with eleven others, of plotting to kidnap the Michigan Governor. The alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer was “busted” less than a...

The U.S. government claims it foiled the Wolverine Watchmen militia’s conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer thanks to Army veteran Dan Chappel, an FBI informant who purportedly prompted the bureau’s investigation when he notified law enforcement about the Watchmen’s violent online rhetoric in March 2020. However, Headline USA has learned that another key FBI informant involved in the Whitmer kidnap sting operation, Stephen Robeson, was embedded in the midwestern militia movement since at least 2019. Moreover, Robeson apparently had a relationship with one of the alleged plotters dating back to January 2020—months before Chappel purportedly discovered the Watchmen and...

Three men accused of supporting a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor were convicted of all charges Wednesday, a triumph for state prosecutors after months of mixed results in the main case in federal court. Joe Morrison, his father-in-law Pete Musico, and Paul Bellar were found guilty of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of a paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen. They held gun drills in rural Jackson County with a leader of the scheme, Adam Fox, who was disgusted with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other officials in 2020 and said he wanted to kidnap her. Jurors read...

FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted Thursday the FBI agent in-charge of the Washington, D.C., field office is the same agent who was in charge of the Detroit field office when the FBI allegedly uncovered a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pressed Wray over whether the same FBI agent who was in charge during the Whitmer incident is now in charge of the Jan. 6 investigations. The alleged plot by far-right militia members to kidnap Whitmer has tarnished the FBI because many of the defendants essentially accuse the...

A federal judge handling the re-trial of two men charged in connection to an alleged kidnapping plot of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer decided Tuesday that information about the first trial, the acquittals of two other men and text messages with an FBI informant cannot be included as part of the evidence presented before the jury during the second trial slated to begin next month.

Totten’s recusal memo would shed light on what Whitmer and her office knew and when they knew it—which is why the Justice Department appears desperate to keep it under wraps. A federal judge on Thursday ordered a new trial for two men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. In April, a Grand Rapids jury acquitted two other men charged in the scheme after defense attorneys successfully argued their clients had been entrapped by the FBI. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict for Adam Fox, the alleged ringleader, and Barry Croft, Jr.; the Justice...

In October of 2020, 13 men were charged in connection with a plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Six people were charged in federal court and Michigan’s own Dirty Dana Nessel charged another seven in state court. Of the defendants who chose to contest the charges, the government is batting 0-4 so far. Two defendants had a mistrial declared after juries were unable to reach a verdict, and two were found not guilty today. As more information comes out about the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the FBI played an instrumental role...

Americans still want to believe that the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency handles its authority with care rather than recklessly ruining lives to advance a political agenda. It doesn’t. ============================================================================ In the spring of 2020, or so the government’s story goes, an Iraq War veteran named Dan Chappel was scouring social media to find like-minded libertarians devoted to the Second Amendment when algorithms prompted him to a Facebook group called the Wolverine Watchmen, an online “militia group” formed just a few months earlier. Chappel reportedly became alarmed at violent “anti-law enforcement” rhetoric posted by some members of the Watchmen,...

Finding out which high-ranking politicians and government officials were in on the Whitmer “kidnapping” caper just became a major part of a growing scandal. For months, defense attorneys representing the men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 have built a convincing case of FBI entrapment, filing dozens of motions in federal court detailing how the government concocted the plot with at least a dozen FBI undercover agents and informants. But District Court Judge Robert Jonker wanted to delay presenting that trove of evidence at trial for as long as possible. Days before jurors took their...

For months, the lawyer representing Kaleb Franks—one of six men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020—has produced some of the most detailed and damning reports to make a case for FBI entrapment. Defense attorneys last year discovered that at least a dozen FBI agents and informants were intimately involved in the abduction plot, brought to a dramatic conclusion in October 2020 when the men were arrested after an FBI informant drove them to meet an undercover FBI agent to buy materials for explosives. With the trial date just weeks away, the Justice Department’s case is...

...the government's case against these 14 alleged extremists relies on work done by at least a dozen government informants and undercover FBI agents whose extensive involvement in the plot calls into question whether it would have moved forward at all without the government's prodding. Some of these government actors took lead roles in organizing the supposed plot—one of the informants (Big Dan) was even paid $54,000 by the FBI. Taken together, these and other details raise the strong possibility that the militia members were victims of entrapment on the part of the FBI. Indeed, the revelations have prompted considerable, welcome...

Federal prosecutors say a key FBI informant in the alleged plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan was a “double agent” who was “working against the interests of the government” by trying to destroy evidence and prevent arrests. The confidential informant, Stephen Robeson, played a central role in the investigation that led to the arrest of 14 men for allegedly participating in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020. At the direction of his FBI handlers, Robeson reached out to potential targets, organized meetings, and paid travel expenses for people to attend such events. Now the government...

"The crux of the case is whether the alleged extremists or the FBI itself fueled the plan. When law enforcement touted foiling a months-long kidnapping plot of Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020 that spanned several states and included encrypted chats and explosives, many believed it was an open-and-shut case. But more than a year later, critics say the arrest and convictions of the lead FBI agent and an FBI confidential informant blurred the line between extremist and confidential informant. Moreover, three planned witnesses have been accused of crimes and won't be testifying in the March 8 trial...

Defense attorneys for the five men charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer say their defendants "had no desire whatsoever to kidnap anyone" and that they have proof that the FBI and its confidential informants "conceived and controlled every aspect" of the plot. The defense motions, filed on Christmas Day and on Wednesday, say that the five men, who are members of the Three Percenters and the Wolverine Watchmen anti-government militia groups, were entrapped in a plan by the government agents, reports the Washington Examiner. The attorneys have also asked that the cases be dismissed. The...

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...

The defense team for the “radical extremists” who are being accused of participating in a plot to kidnap Michigan’s unpopular Governor Gretchen Whitmer are calling on the judge to throw out the case against their clients. The 20-page motion, filed Christmas night by all five defense lawyers, asks U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker to dismiss the conspiracy charge. The move would effectively dismantle the government’s case and remaining charges, which are intertwined and based on the conspiracy charge, the lawyers wrote. “Essentially, the evidence here demonstrates egregious overreaching by the government’s agents, and by the informants those agents handled,” defense...

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...