Whitmer blames Trump after FBI 'foils plot' to kidnap Michigan governor
The FBI was able to infiltrate right-wing group and shut down plot before it materialized, says Fox News contributor Ted Williams.
A Michigan judge ruled on Friday that prosecutors could move to trial with five men accused of plotting to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Berens ruled the five men’s cases can proceed to a grand jury to determine whether any, or all, would be indicted. Indictments would be required for the men to face trial.
A hearing this week featured testimony by one of the FBI agents who ran the investigation, relying on confidential informants and undercover agents to thwart the purported scheme to abduct Whitmer.
ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL BARR CALLS WHITMER KIDNAP PLOT 'ABHORRENT'
On Friday, Berens also was expected to consider whether two of the men, Adam Fox and Ty Garbin, should be denied bond as they await trial.
Top, from left to right: Adam Dean Fox; Kaleb Franks; Brandon Caserta Bottom, from left to right: Daniel Harris; Ty Garbin; Barry Croft (Kent County Sheriff, Delaware Department of Justice)
On Tuesday, Berens denied bond for three other men who are charged in the case, saying Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta repeatedly participated in discussions about abducting Whitmer.
A sixth man, Barry Croft, was ordered separately on Tuesday to be transferred to Michigan from his home state of Delaware.
At the preliminary hearing, which started Tuesday and continued on Friday, FBI agent Richard Trask testified that members of anti-government paramilitary groups from several states discussed abducting Whitmer or Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam during a June meeting in Ohio.
Fox and Croft were among those who attended that session, according to testimony and federal court documents. But it was not clear if talk of targeting Northam went beyond that meeting, and nothing from the complaint or Trask’s testimony indicated that anyone was charged with a plot involving Northam.
If convicted, the men face up to life in prison.
Investigators surveilled the kidnapping plot in August and September, according to an FBI affidavit, and four of the men planned to meet last week to “make a payment on explosives and exchange tactical gear.”
The FBI quoted one of the men as saying Whitmer “has no checks and balances at all. She has uncontrolled power right now. All good things must come to an end.”
In a photo provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich., Oct. 8,. T(Michigan Office of the Governor via AP)
Earlier this week, Whitmer criticized President Trump for making statements that she said emboldened anti-government protesters and white supremacists. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment on Friday.
WHITMER KIDNAPPING SUSPECT APPEARS TO CRITICIZE TRUMP IN VIRAL VIDEO
She pointed to Trump’s debate comments, when he did not condemn white supremacist groups and told one far-right extremist group to “stand back and stand by.”
“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry,” Whitmer said. “When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet, encourage or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.”
Separately, seven other men purportedly linked to an extremist paramilitary group called the Wolverine Watchmen were charged in state court last week with providing material support for terrorist acts and possession of a firearm while committing a felony. The seven people were accused of seeking to storm the Michigan Capitol and seek a “civil war.”
Michigan’s attorney general charged an eighth person — a Wisconsin man — in that case on Thursday.
The state terrorism charges the other seven men face carry possible 20-year sentences.
State police said previously that the two groups trained together and planned “various acts of violence."
Defense attorneys implied during the two days of federal hearings that their clients were “big talkers,” but had no intention of following through with their threats.
They also questioned that the government had actually been able to prove that the accused men formed a pact and that they all planned to participate.
WHITMER KIDNAPPING PLOT SUSPECTS ALSO DISCUSSED ABDUCTING VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: FBI AGENT
“It’s loose talk,” said Scott Graham, an attorney for Franks. “And again, the point is: What has been done to show you that there was an actual agreement?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler, though, argued that the group repeatedly took steps to protect their communication by using encrypted chat tools and worried that federal authorities had infiltrated the group.
Individual defendants also participated in surveillance of Whitmer’s northern Michigan home, Kessler said, rejecting defense attorneys’ implication that the men participated in paramilitary group exercises without a specific goal or plan.
“You’re crossing a pretty serious line when you go in the middle of the night in multiple cars and stage up at a gas station and ... you go to the house of the sitting governor of the state to go surveil their house at night,” Kessler said.
Berens agreed, saying prosecutors didn’t have to show the men “signed on a dotted line.”
Berens found that the information presented in testimony and in court documents showed the men had a unified purpose — to kidnap Whitmer — allowing the case to move forward.
“The fact that (the plan) was likely to be unsuccessful or difficult to accomplish,” she said, isn’t relevant to decide whether there is probable cause that they made a plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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