After more than a year of investigations, arrests, and trial preparation in the case of the plot by a “right-wing” militia group to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, information is surfacing that casts a very different light on the case than that offered by the FBI and federal prosecutors. It appears the whole thing was a big government scam and the plot to kidnap the Democrat governor was all the work of the government itself.
According to investigators and the prosecution, the FBI discovered the kidnapping plot in early 2020, after a U.S. Army veteran — known only as “Dan” — joined a group of “right-wing” Trump supporters who had formed a “white” militia group and became concerned about their use of a hunting app that could be used to track the addresses of police officers. “Dan” then was put in touch with the FBI by a friend at a local police department. He subsequently became an FBI informant infiltrating the group to report on any plans to kill police officers.
“Dan” was paid $50,000 by the FBI for his trouble.
Though no plot to kill police officers ever emerged, the group allegedly shifted to a plan to kidnap Whitmer — placing her under “citizen’s arrest” — and then violently overthrow the government of Michigan.
This alleged plot fits neatly with the narrative — promoted by the FBI and other federal agencies — that “white extremists” are the greatest danger to America. Part of that narrative is that “white extremist” Trump supporters attempted to overthrow the federal government on January 6. This case appears tailor-made to fit that narrative, but the FBI and federal prosecutors assure us all that there really was a plot to kidnap Whitmer and take over Michigan. And they have the culprits in custody and ready to face charges.
But now, more than a year later, five of the men charged in the plot have asked a judge to dismiss the charges, claiming that the FBI fabricated the plan and tried to trap them in the conspiracy. As Daily Mail reports:
“The government initiated this case, despite the fact that it knew there was no plan to kidnap, no operational plan, and no details about how a kidnapping would occur or what would happen afterward,” defense lawyer Scott Graham wrote in his 20-page motion.
The attorneys claimed in their December 25 filing that if it weren’t for an FBI informant embedded with the group, known only as “Dan”, who encouraged the plot and promised to fund it through a charity organization, the men would never have done it on their own.
There were 12 confidential informants involved in the investigation, who the lawyers say recruited, agitated and funded the movement.
And:
But defense attorneys say that the men were scraping by and had no money to travel to the governor’s home to carry out the kidnapping.
“The evidence here demonstrates egregious overreaching by the government’s agents, and by the informants those agents handled. When the government was faced with evidence showing that the defendants had no interest in a kidnapping plot, it refused to accept failure and continued to push its plan,” the lawyers for the men wrote in their motion to dismiss filed Saturday night.
While this appears to be turning into a case of “they said/they said” with no real indication of who is to be believed, the prosecution has at least a couple of wrinkles in its case.
First, the lead FBI investigator on the case, Richard Trask, is now former FBI Special Agent Richard Trask — following his no-contest plea and subsequent conviction in December 2020 when he was charged with beating his wife after the couple returned home from a swingers party in July of that year. According to the timeline, that would mean that while Trask was “investigating” the plot to kidnap Whitmer, he was attending sex-swapping parties with his wife and beat her after one of those parties. This — of course — calls into question his reliability as a witness; his moral compass is clearly askew.
And much more recently, one of the key informants in the case of the alleged kidnapping plot — a man who was involved in recruiting, organizing meetings, and paying for expenses related to the alleged plot — was charged last week with fraud for convincing a couple to donate their SUV to a fake anti-child sex trafficking non-profit charity that he and his wife invented as a ruse to relieve the couple of their vehicle. If convicted, the informant, Stephen Robeson, and his wife, Kimberly, face up to three and a half years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
With people such as Trask and Robeson playing key roles in the “investigation,” the claim by the defense that the FBI made up the plot begins to sound credible. This would not be the first time the FBI fabricated a case either to feed a narrative or to boost its image by being seen as foiling a foul plot. Two former cases come immediately to mind: In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the FBI was reported to have provided the explosives that terrorists used to attack the building in a scheme to catch them in the act and prevent the attack at the last moment. And in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the FBI and ATF began a program of surveillance and intimidation in an attempt to force Randy Weaver to become an informant reporting on white separatist groups in northern Idaho. Before the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Weaver’s wife and son were killed and Weaver and a friend were critically wounded. Weaver sued the federal government and was awarded over $3 million.
Perhaps it is true that a group of “right-wing” Trump supporters did plot to kidnap Whitmer, perhaps it isn’t. With the immoral and untrustworthy miscreants the FBI had “investigating” the alleged plot, it may impossible to ever know. One thing is certain: It is entirely possible that there never was any such plot except in the darkened minds of the FBI officials who created it out of thin air.
