The final trial of suspects in a bizarre plot to kidnap Michigan's governor begins this week

Nearly three years after authorities foiled a bizarre plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the last defendants accused of taking part go on trial Monday.

Eric Molitor and brothers William Null and Michael Null were among 14 men, described by prosecutors as anti-government extremists, charged in the scheme weeks before the November 2020 election. They were angered by Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, which shut down schools and restricted the economy, investigators said in court filings.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
          English
          112·
          11 months ago

          Funding is not a defensible position.

          “Hey we’re gonna go do some illegal shit, wanna join? We just need more people.”

          If they go out to do it, they committed a crime.

          • Strangle@lemmy.worldEnglish
            725·
            11 months ago

            I’m not a lawyer, but it’s plenty sus that the FBI does shit like this.

            ‘Infiltrate’ a group of people and then invent some scheme, record people saying ‘yay that’s awesome!’ And then arresting everyone over a crime that the FBI themselves cooked up

            • Roboticide@lemmy.worldEnglish
              281·
              11 months ago

              Of the nine that have seen trial so far, seven have been found guilty by a jury of their peers.

              Actual lawyers and the justice system have not found what the FBI did to be entrapment, despite that attempted defense being used.

              That’s not to say the FBI doesn’t do any wrong - they have and probably will continue to do so - but these guys weren’t innocent victims caught up on overblown charges just playing pretend. They were plotting to do actual harm and the planning was serious enough that it was their own recruits who defected and informed. It wasn’t some FBI honeypot they all stumbled into.

              • Strangle@lemmy.worldEnglish
                216·
                11 months ago
                • some of the informants the government used appeared to play a far greater role in the plot than had been previously reported. In fact, the informants had a hand in nearly every aspect of the twisted machination, including its inception.

                Can you guys not read, or follow embedded links to sources of information?

                This federalist piece outlines how the FBI operates exactly this way, too:

                https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/23/the-whitmer-kidnapping-case-reveals-the-fbis-new-counterterrorism-target-is-you/

                  • Strangle@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    19·
                    11 months ago

                    Oh I’m sorry, it’s not the paragon of reporting you usually read, like ‘salon’ or some fucking garbage.

                    How about we engage in the point and not the media? That’s the only way you people know how to defend a point. “Oh, salon didn’t write it, it just not be true!”

                    Worthless

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
          7·
          11 months ago

          Yes, every time people you agree with make you look bad, it’s always the feds.

          “Party of personal responsibility” has always been horseshit.