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.

  • Strangle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    725·
    1 year 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·
      1 year 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.