A defendant in a government case alleging there was a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – at a time when she was restricting state residents’ rights under the flag of COVID mitigation – is charging he was pressured into the alleged discussions by individuals linked to the FBI.
A report in Just the News quotes a court filing explaining that Adam Fox, “repeatedly” explained he did not want to be involved in the conspiracy – in the face of “persistent” pressure, and even “manipulation” by FBI informants.
Defense attorneys in the Whitmer case have explained evidence they are acquiring “depicts an elaborate tale of FBI entrapment,” wrote Julie Kelly, who has reported extensively on both cases for the website American Greatness.
She pointed out at least a dozen FBI informants were involved in the failed plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, amounting to about one FBI asset per defendant.
“FBI agents handling the informants directed every move,” Kelly writes. “They funded training and reconnaissance trips, and even organized a ‘national militia’ conference in Ohio in June 2020 to lure potential accomplices.”
But when several men were arrested in the Michigan plot in October 2020 after the lead informant drove them to meet an undercover FBI agent, Joe Biden, Whitmer and the establishment media blamed President Trump for inciting an attempted domestic terror attack.
That should sound familiar, writes Kelly, who with Revolver News has led the reporting on evidence that suspected FBI informers worked to trigger violence at what otherwise might have been a peaceful rally Jan. 6, 2021.
“She has noted that despite the repeated claims that Jan. 6 was an ‘armed insurrection’ of ‘white supremacists,’ not one person has been charged with carrying or using a firearm inside the Capitol building. The only person who used a firearm inside the Capitol was the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed an unarmed female veteran, Ashli Babbitt.
Now Just the News explains Fox’s lawyers have submitted a court filing explaining he will use the entrapment defense, charging he was pushed into the events by government agents.
Fox, Barry Croft, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta are facing charges in Michigan on the government’s claims of a kidnapping plan.
But Fox, the filing states, “lacked the predisposition to commit a kidnapping or use a weapon of mass destruction and his participation was induced by persistent and repeated pressure and manipulation by government informants.”
Among the facts are that Fox was urging those at a meeting on the alleged conspiracy to “address the negative perception that they are violent, destructive, ‘domestic terrorists.'” And when an agent suggested a “snatch and grab” of Whitmer, Fox said that would “devastate” the community.
Just the News explained, “Many of the meetings held about the kidnapping involved a significant number of undercover informants. For example, at a July 18, 2020, meeting, of the 21 attendees, ‘at least five were actively cooperating with the FBI.’ The meeting was also recorded by more than one informant. Another meeting that month was attended by ten people working with the government.”
WND also reported that when lawyers for several defendants unsuccessfully sought to have the court case dismissed, they explained those who were working as agents for the FBI essentially are the ones responsible.
“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,” a filing at the time said.
Reports then explained, “FBI agents and federal prosecutors capitalized on discontent with Whitmer’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, invented a conspiracy and entrapped five people who face up to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping conspiracy in a case that has shed light on violent extremism in Michigan.”
The case already has seen two government operatives fall in disgrace.
For example, FBI Special Agent Richard Trask, the government’s public face of the investigation, was arrested on a domestic violence charge and later fired and convicted of a misdemeanor. And a government informant, Stephen Robeson, was dropped by federal investigators after he was caught with an illegal sniper rifle.
Government lawyers have claimed their agents were not pushing the defendants to illegal activity in order to entrap them. But the FBI’s reputation has taken a shellacking in recent years because of the involvement of its employees in the debunked “Russiagate” collusion conspiracy theory it worked to promote against President Trump.
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