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.

  • @someguy3
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    1811 months ago

    That’s not entrapment if you think it is. But we’ll see the details come out.

    • @Strangle
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      -1811 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
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        2711 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.

      • @Mcdolan
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        1011 months ago

        deleted by creator

        • @Strangle
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          -1411 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/

          • @Mcdolan
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            1411 months ago

            deleted by creator

          • Flying Squid
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            11 months ago

            The Federalist! There’s a source you can definitely trust!

            • @Strangle
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              -811 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