Government fails to get convictions in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case. Two acquittals, two mistrials.

 

The four defendants. Clockwise from left, Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Brandon Casereta and Daniel Harris. The Detroit News.

The government failed to get convictions in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case with jurors finding two of the four men not-guilty while being unable to reach a verdict in two more cases. The Detroit News. The men were charged with a conspiracy to commit  kidnapping and other crimes. There was evidence of them building weapons and practicing with firearms However, the case fell apart for the government due to accusations of entrapment. One of the key informants in the case, Stephan Robeson was arrested on gun charges. There were also multiple scandals with the FBI agents assigned to the case, with one being arrested for domestic abuse and another accused of trying to gain infamy in the investigation to start his own cybersecurity firm. But it was accusations of entrapment by the FBI and their informants that appears to derail convictions. An informant named Dan Chappel was accused by the defense of masterminding the entire plot and plying the defendants with marijuana. 

My Comment:

I had read a long form article about this case long before it went to trial. It was all about the FBI informants, Dan Chappel and Stephan Robeson, and how they had largely created the case out of thin air. I have looked for the article again, but I don't remember what news outlet it was from and I have had no luck finding it. But it had convinced me that this case as an obvious example of entrapment. 

With that being said, I do think that Gretchen Whitmer is an absolutely terrible governor and it was not at all surprising that people wanted her gone. She massively overstepped her bounds as governor during the pandemic and introduced many draconian and even baffling restrictions on normal life in the state of Michigan. The motive was here. I don't doubt that these people wanted her gone because I feel the same way, and most rational people would agree. That doesn't mean I support a plot like this, obviously, but I understand wanting to do so. 

But the real question is if the government starts a plot to kidnap someone is the plot real? I don't think there was much in the way of evidence that these men would have done anything if it hadn't been for the FBI and their informants and it appears that the jury agreed in two out of the four cases tried here and had enough doubt that they couldn't reach a unanimous verdict in the other two cases. 

This is, of course, a major problem with the FBI these days. They rarely focus on solving actual crimes and instead focus on creating plots and then arresting people when the plot moves forward. Some of those people are admittedly bad guys but in many of the cases the people would not be criminals if it wasn't for the FBI helping them. They are a government agency that seems to specialize in entrapment and I am glad to see it blowing up in their face. 

Thankfully this time nobody got hurt but that isn't always the case. Most famously the FBI used the same tactics against ISIS, leading to the Curtis Culwell attack in Garland Texas. In that case the FBI had helped two ISIS sympathizers and were actually tracking the men as they opened fire on the Islam cartoon event, leading to the death of the two men and an innocent security guard getting injured. Something similar could have happened in this case and though I have no love for Governor Whitmer, it would be sad to see innocent people hurt because the FBI can't actually investigate crimes. 

With all that being said I do have to say that the FBI's tactics has done a lot to quell right wing dissent. This case, along with similar accusations against the January 6th protests have taken the wind out of the sails of right wing protest movements and we have seen the results of that. A good example is of the American version of the Freedom Convoy protests in Canada. The Canadian protests were effective and disruptive because they weren't afraid of the the government infiltrating the movement.

 But the American version? A total joke that accomplished absolutely nothing. Some of that was due to changing circumstances, Coronavirus restrictions had largely gone away by the time the convoy had been organized and Ukraine sucked all the air out of the room, but much of it was because the organizers were too afraid to use effective tactics, such as blocking the borders or locking down city streets. 

Which brings up a very important question for right wing Americans. How do you peacefully protest the government without getting the FBI to entrap and arrest you? It's a huge problem and not one I have any kind of solution too. But I do know that allowing the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party to run roughshod over the American people because everyone is too afraid of the "glowies" to do anything is not a solution...