LANSING, MI – Six men were arrested and charged for allegedly plotting to kidnap current Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Now, new evidence has been released in federal court.
…they discussed their disdain for police, and even talked about stalking them on their shifts… pic.twitter.com/iGt65J5P7F
— Doug Reardon (@ReardonReports) October 16, 2020
Typically, evidence such as this is not released prior to the court, for fears they could potentially bias a jury. However, this case is anything but typical, and the US Attorney wants to make sure that people can see the evidence for themselves.
Two of the items that were released are videos that were allegedly produced by the suspects themselves, showing them going through rapid reload drills with both handguns and long guns. Another video shows the basement of Ty Garbin’s home, and showcases the number of weapons and a silencer the group allegedly planned to use in their attacks.
Brandon Caserta was heard saying:
“If this shit goes down…okay…if this whole things starts to happen, I’m telling you what dude, I’m taking out as many of those [expletives] as I can. Every single one dude. Every single one.
“And if you guys are gonna give any of these [expletive] a chance, any of these gang [expletive] criminal [expletive] government thugs that rob people everyday, if you’re even gonna give them a second to try to speak or tell their story, don’t even [expletive] with me dude.
“I have zero patience for immoral coward criminals. I’m sick of being robbed and enslaved by the state. Period…And these are the guys who are actually doing it.”
Federal authorities allege that these videos were shared amongst the group on some type of encrypted media. Some of the texts sent back and forth were captured by the confidential informant in the case. They showed that one of the members asked about a “road trip” that another member had done.
This is apparent code, according to the federal authorities, for really asking how the surveillance mission on Whitmer’s summer home went. Another member chimes in, stating that they had eyes on the home.
A third man joins into the text stating that they could blow up a bridge in order to slow police response to the home. The person took a photograph of the underside of the bridge to show what could be done.
…they discussed their disdain for police, and even talked about stalking them on their shifts… pic.twitter.com/iGt65J5P7F
— Doug Reardon (@ReardonReports) October 16, 2020
Fox News reporter Doug Reardon pointed out that some of the text messages between the group suggested they just kill Whitmer instead of kidnapping her.
The message said:
“Laying in bed, craziest idea. Have one person go to her house. Knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her…at this point. [Expletive] it.”
The response:
“LOL only if it would be that easy.”
The informant then provided a picture of who police believe was the leader of the group, Adam Fox, as he was surveilling the governor’s house. Another picture was presented allegedly showing Fox drawing a map of the house and the layout of the area.
Fox allegedly noted that the nearest police department to the summer home was roughly three minutes away from the location. Any other police responses would have to come from other jurisdictions which were over 20 miles away.
Of course, defense attorneys for the group maintain that the defendants did not commit any crimes, and there was no real planning in the works. However, they contend that the group merely openly spoke of ideas and alluded that they had no intention of carrying out the threats.
Three of the men, Brandon Caserta, Kaleb Franks, and Daniel Harris were denied bond at a recent hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens said the group of men remained a threat to the community if released on bond.
She said:
“There is apparently a movement…that plots the overthrow of the government by force. [If they are released the plot] has the ability to begin again.”
Attorney: FBI informant “pushed” the accused to move forward in Whitmer “kidnapping” plot – suggests a setup
October 14, 2020
The following contains editorial content by a retired Chief of Police and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI- Last week, the mainstream media breathlessly reported that “right wing extremists” had launched an effort to kidnap the far-left governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.
Of course Whitmer seized on those reports, blaming President Donald Trump’s “extremist rhetoric” for inflaming people to the point where they were going to take Whitmer hostage. However, details have emerged which may derail the narrative.
The Detroit Free Press reported on a bail hearing that took place on Tuesday and buried deep inside the story is what could be considered an important piece of information, and which may actually show that the “right wing militia” was in fact led to hatch the plot at the behest of one of the FBI informants.
According to defense attorney Scott Graham, he said that it was in fact informants and undercover agents who “pushed” the others to engage in illegal activity.
“One of the most active leaders was your informant,” Graham said.
The defense attorneys contended in their arguments to release the defendants on bail that there had been no probable cause to arrest and charge the suspects, saying that they had no “operational plans to do anything,” and that they had in fact been “engaged in legal activities—including talking in encrypted group chats and practicing military exercises with lawfully owned guns,” according to Graham.
Graham said that the FBI informant who wore wires to the militia meetings acted in more than just the capacity of an undercover observer. The question became were these militia members victims of an entrapment scheme by the FBI? Certainly that is the narrative that Graham is trying to pursue. Was the FBI trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack as something of a false flag maneuver, and if so, why?
Clearly, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility after all we have discovered about the FBI’s complicity since 2016 in trying to take down the Trump administration. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently tried to downplay the violent, left-wing group Antifa, while trying to bolster the existence of right wing extremism.
An overwhelming majority of FBI agents are good and honorable people. The same cannot be said about their leadership, with former FBI Director James Comey and former Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe being outed as being intimately tied to the plot to undermine President Trump.
Is it too much to think that perhaps there is more to this “plot” to kidnap Whitmer than meets the eye? Probably not.
We have seen that the so-called “deep state,” the inner cabal of Washington insiders is not above trying to affect a presidential election. The whole “Russia hoax” fiasco was perpetrated in large part by Comey and willing accomplices in the FBI, such as Peter Strzok and Lisa Paige. Was the FBI trying to manufacture an “October surprise” to influence the upcoming election? Who knows? Possible? Yes.
Still, given what we now know about the FBI and more recently the CIA, it is possible.
When the plot to allegedly kidnap Whitmer went public, the usual suspects in the mainstream DNC media jumped on the opportunity to tie it into President Trump, blaming his so-called “anti-lockdown” and “pro-militia” rhetoric for the plot, even though leaders of the group were by and large anti-Trump.
In speaking to the “plot” in Michigan, Graham offered the argument that there wasn’t in fact a plot to kidnap Whitmer, but it was more along the lines of “military wannabes” who engaged in “big talk.”
“Have you ever dealt with big talkers?” Graham asked an FBI agent during cross examination. “There’s kind of a military-wanna-be theme that runs between the militias.”
Graham was questioning FBI special agent Richard Trask about testimony that claimed a minimum of 13 so-called militia members had plotted to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home and either leave her in the middle of Lake Michigan or take her to Wisconsin where she would be tried for treason.
Under examination, Trask was asked how the members of the militia had planned on getting Whitmer to Wisconsin. The agent couldn’t answer the question, and could only say that there were allegedly audio recordings of the suspects saying that they were planning on taking Whitmer to another state, including Wisconsin.
Again, the agent was asked by Graham what the suspects were going to do with Whitmer after leaving her in the lake, only saying that the alleged ringleader of the group, Adam Fox had said they were going to “take her out on a boat and leave her in the middle of Lake Michigan.”
Graham represents Kaleb Franks, 26, who ended up having his bail denied on Tuesday after the judge was convinced he was a danger to society. Two other suspects, Daniel Harris, 23 and Brandon Caserta, 32, were also refused bond.
The remaining bond hearings have been scheduled for Friday, this time for Fox and Ty Garbin, 24.
The five defendants appeared in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, where the case involving Whitmer was disclosed. In addition, the group had also talked about kidnapping Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, he of the blackface college pictures, as well as one of the suspects—a decorated Marine—allegedly asked his co-conspirators if they wanted to kill a Maine police officer for one of his friends.
Meantime, the defense lawyers claimed that the government has only produced small samples of conversations in the case, and said that the government has no evidence that the accused had any real plan to kidnap Whitmer.
The five men were setup in a scheme to purchase explosives and tactical gear from someone, however when they arrived FBI agents were there instead.
One of the defense attorneys, Gary Springstead, who is representing Garbin said that there is still much more evidence to be presented.
“I haven’t had a full opportunity to review all the evidence,” Springstead said. “I think my co-counsel made good pints that (the evidence presented today) is a snapshot. A lot of quick points in a big time frame. You don’t know what else is happening outside of that time frame.”
“So I’m sure in our investigation (which) we’re going to conduct ourselves, and not rely solely on the federal government to tell us what happened, we’ll try to round out that information and figure out what happened in the times that weren’t captured on tape that weren’t captured in text to put it into fuller context so we can better assess where we stand in the case.”
Springstead also spoke to using an informant in this case is troublesome, especially given the role they played.
“It’s become an issue in certain cases where the informant pushes some of the information, and the court and the government and the defense attorneys have to be leery of that,” he told reporters.
“Because their job is not to assess what the government informant wants them to do, it’s to assess the accused’s intent and what they actually planned on doing.”
Ironically, the Washington Examiner reported that Daniel Harris, 23, one of the so-called “white supremacists” who was involved with the plot, had attended a Black Lives Matter rally in June, telling the Oakland County Times that he was upset about the death of George Floyd and police violence, as reported in the Washington Post.
Harris told the Oakland County Times: “We went to the BLM protest yesterday in Lake Orion to show our support that everyone’s voice should be heard, no matter the color on your skin. Protesting is important to me because it gives us all a voice to be heard.”
Sounds like a white supremacist to us.
Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.
Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!
