Attorneys for the men accused of conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) last year are asking to have their charges dismissed following allegations that the FBI actually orchestrated the plot.
Scott Graham, an attorney representing five of the 14 men accused of plotting to kidnap the governor, wrote in his motion to dismiss: “The key to the government’s plan was to turn general discontent with Governor Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions into a crime that could be prosecuted. The government picked what it knew would be a sensational charge: conspiracy to kidnap the governor.”
As The Hill reported, federal prosecutors and the FBI claimed Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. “agreed to gather individuals to take part in their plot to overthrow the Michigan state government and kidnap Whitmer.” Fox allegedly contacted militia groups in Michigan that were on the FBI’s radar. The FBI said it recorded a phone call between Fox and others discussing the need to hire “200 men” to help with the kidnapping plot, which included storming the Michigan state Capitol and taking hostages.
Graham, however, noted in his motion to dismiss that there was “no plan to kidnap, no operational plan, and no details about how a kidnapping would occur or what would happen afterward.” Further, he argued, it was government agents and their informants who actually “concocted” the kidnapping plot.
Reporting by BuzzFeed News appears to back up Graham’s claims. The outlet produced a deep dive into the situation earlier this month, explaining that the October 8, 2020, announcement that the FBI had stopped a kidnapping plot against Whitmer “was quickly hailed as one of the most important domestic terrorism prosecutions in a generation.”
BuzzFeed noted that the “case seemed like a lock — until an informant and one FBI agent were charged with crimes, another was accused of perjury, and a third was found promoting a private security firm.”
FBI agent Jayson Chambers was known to be instrumental in securing the indictments against the defendants, but BuzzFeed discovered that Chambers had incorporated a private security firm a year and a half before the alleged plot and had been trying to get the business off the ground, in part by using his FBI bona fides. Five days after BuzzFeed reported on the business, the FBI announced Chambers would not be called to testify during the kidnapping trial.
“A continuing BuzzFeed News investigation reveals new information about how Chambers’ business, along with an array of issues involving other FBI agents and informants, has bedeviled the prosecution. Those issues may well affect the course of the trial. But beyond the integrity of the case, the problems are serious and widespread enough to call into question tactics the FBI has relied on for decades — and to test the public’s trust in the bureau overall,” the outlet reported.
Multiple FBI agents and informants working the case have since been charged or accused of various unrelated crimes. One agent was accused of perjury. An informant was indicted on a gun charge and is under investigation for fraud. Stephen Robeson, an informant for the FBI, was reportatedly the one who “identified and recruited potential targets in multiple states and who organized many of the events where prosecutors say the alleged kidnapping plan was hatched.”