Law Jury acquits 2 men accused in Michigan Gov. Whitmer kidnapping plot, deadlocks on 2 others - Glowniggers wailing in despair

Jury acquits 2 men accused in Michigan Gov. Whitmer kidnapping plot, deadlocks on 2 others

Jurors said they couldn't agree on verdicts again Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.​

Louis CasianoApril 8, 2022 2:33pm EDT

Two of four men were acquitted Friday in a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, motivated by fury at the Democrat’s tough COVID-19 restrictions early in the pandemic.

The jury’s verdicts against Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were read in the federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the case presided over by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker. Jurors said they couldn’t agree on verdicts again Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. Prosecutors described Fox as a ringleader of an anti-government group.

Earlier in the day, the jurors said that there are several counts which the deliberative body are deadlocked on. Testimony began on March 9.

"It is not unusual to come back somewhere along the line of deliberations and say 'we tried, but couldn’t get there,'" Judge Robert Jonker said, according to Detroit News. "At least not on everything."

TRIAL RESUME FOR 4 MEN ACCUSED OF MICHIGAN GOVERNOR PLOT

Jonker encouraged the jurors to continue deliberations in hopes of reaching a unanimous decision, saying, "Before that’s the final answer, I would like you to go back and make another effort to see if you can come to an agreement on issues you are stuck on as a group."

Fox, Croft and Harris faced additional charges. The two most serious charges, kidnapping conspiracy and conspiracy to use explosives, both carry potential life sentences.

The trial has lasted over 20 days as the public awaits the final decision on defendants Barry Croft, Adam Fox, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta. Prosecutors say they turned their anger toward government in 2020 into a plot to kidnap Whitmer because of the restrictions she imposed during the early months of the pandemic.

FILE - This combination of photos provided by the Kent County Sheriff and the Delaware Department of Justice shows, top row from left, Brandon Caserta and Barry Croft; and bottom row from left, Adam Dean Fox and Daniel Harris. The four members of anti-government groups are facing trial in March 2022 on federal charges accusing them in a plot to abduct Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

FILE - This combination of photos provided by the Kent County Sheriff and the Delaware Department of Justice shows, top row from left, Brandon Caserta and Barry Croft; and bottom row from left, Adam Dean Fox and Daniel Harris. The four members of anti-government groups are facing trial in March 2022 on federal charges accusing them in a plot to abduct Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. (Kent County Sheriff, Delaware Department of Justice via AP File)
Defense lawyers claim informants and undercover agents improperly influenced the men.

Whitmer, a Democrat who is seeking reelection, rarely talks publicly about the case. She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case. She has said Trump was complicit in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visits Ford Bronco off-road track during the Motor Bella 2021 auto show in Pontiac, Michigan, Sept. 21, 2021.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visits Ford Bronco off-road track during the Motor Bella 2021 auto show in Pontiac, Michigan, Sept. 21, 2021. (REUTERS/Rebecca Cook)
A man upset over state-ordered coronavirus restrictions was sentenced to just over six years in prison last year after admitting to involvement in the plot – a significant break that reflected his quick decision to cooperate and help agents build cases against others.

Ty Garbin admitted his role in the alleged scheme weeks after his arrest last fall. He is among six mencharged in federal court but the only one to plead guilty so far. It was a key victory for prosecutors as they try to prove an astonishing plot against the others.

Garbin apologized to Whitmer, who was not in court, and her family.
 
I love how the article still makes them seem guilty even though two were acquitted and the other two have a hung jury.

Also the lack of any mention of how this was basically a FBI plot.
They dared take actual action against the Feds without Elite approval, of course the media will try to tear them down with every breath.
 
now you can't even convict them with a friendly jury
One of the things that pisses me off about the Feds is that they refuse to livestream or allow cameras in the courtroom so we don't get to see how shoddy their case must have been to lose when the deck is stacked in their favor practically to the rafters. Seriously, the Feds have something like a 98% conviction rate, for a number of reasons.

They must be scrambling to bury this, it can only make them look more like idiots if it gets press.
 
I mean, on one hand it's very good that the guys have effectively beat the charges. The charges were FBI special bullshit.

On the other hand, they probably had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each to pay for the lawyers who were both competent, and willing to defend them. That last one has been the biggest problem for the Jan 6th guys, along with the fact that apparently DC doesn't have any of the usual legal rights including habeas corpus.
 
Dear Glowies,
This is what I think should happen to you. Not a threat, just something I wish would happen.

Don't bother sending some fucking honeypot Fed Twink to try to get me for partaking in one of your autistic plans. I am far too old, fat, and right wing to believe some Twink wanting me to plug his hole while discussing their plan to kill government officials is anything but a trap.
 
6 were arrested, 2 plead out, 2 not guilty and 2 will be retried. Probably.

If the jury thought the 2 who were found not guilty, not guilty then chances are high they simply were close to the kidnapping scheme but not guilty.

The fact that they were locked on the other 2 means there is something to the other 2.

It's not over yet for 2 of them. and 2 already plead out.
 
Article with more details:

2 Michigan governor kidnap plot suspects found not guilty; mistrial declared for other 2​

The historic case involving a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ended with no convictions.

The jury acquitted Daniel Harris on all four counts, and Brandon Caserta was acquitted on the one count of kidnapping conspiracy — so both men are free to go.

The jury deadlocked on charges against Adam Fox and Barry Croft, so a mistrial was declared for those defendants.

The U.S. Attorneys office in Grand Rapids said it will retry the men, and that it is "obviously" disappointed in the outcome of the case.

In a statement released after the verdicts, Whitmer expressed concern that the outcome of the case may encourage future extremists.

"The plot to kidnap and kill a governor may seem like an anomaly. But we must be honest about what it really is: the result of violent, divisive rhetoric that is all too common across our country," Whitmer stated. "There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened."

This decision came down after the jury twice announced it had deadlocked.

"After using the suggestions of the court, we're still unable to reach a unanimous decision on several counts," the jury stated in a note that was handed to the judge, some three hours after he instructed them to stay at it.

"You have to vote your own conscience at the end of the day," the judge said. "See if anything moves you on a locked decision."

The jury returned in three hours with its partial verdicts.

In a case that highlighted the growth of violent extremism in the U.S., the jury spent three weeks listening to testimony about how four like-minded men bonded over social media, vented about the government controlling their lives, and then came together through a group called the Wolverine Watchmen — a self-proclaimed Michigan militia that wanted to spark a second Civil War and use the Whitmer kidnaping as a starting point.

To carry out the kidnap plan, witnesses testified, the group also plotted to blow up a bridge near Whitmer's vacation house to slow down law enforcement and experimented with explosives to make that happen — an allegation that triggered the weapons of mass destruction charges that carry a life in prison sentence.

The plot, though, was foiled on Oct. 7, 2020 in an FBI sting outside a warehouse in Ypsilanti, a Michigan city just east of Ann Arbor. An undercover informant had driven the suspects to the warehouse, tricking them into thinking they were going there to make a down payment on explosives, pick up some military gear, and then head to Buffalo Wild Wings for beer and chicken.

Instead, FBI agents were there waiting in handcuffs.

The defendants spent 18 months jailed as they waited for their case to go to trial. They maintained they were victims of entrapment and the FBI came up with the kidnap idea and pressured them into saying and doing things they wouldn't have otherwise.

According to trial testimony, the suspects spent months discussing different ways they could attack the government for, as they saw it, infringing on their freedoms. There was also talk about storming the state capitol. But the suspects didn't think that was doable, so they decided to kidnap the governor instead, according to trial testimony by undercover FBI agents and informants.

The alleged kidnap plan involved snatching Whitmer from her cottage, driving her to the shoreline of Lake Michigan, putting her in a boat, and either leaving her stranded in the lake or transporting her to Wisconsin to hang her.

The defense argued that was all fantasy talk carried out by men who were stoned most of the time, and that they had no real plan or ever intended to kidnap Whitmer — that it was all tough talk by men blowing off steam.

The defense also argued that the FBI ran the whole show and masterminded the entire kidnap plot to advance their own careers.

The prosecution disagreed, arguing there was no evidence at trial that any informant or agent devised the kidnap plot or encouraged anyone to kidnap the governor.

The suspects did a lot more than talk, prosecutors said, arguing the defendants took numerous steps to make this happen, including: casing the governor's vacation house twice, drawing a map of the area, buying $3,800 binoculars, building a model of her cottage to practice extracting a person, communicating on encrypted chats to conceal their activities and practicing using explosives to carry out their plan. According to multiple witnesses, the suspects practiced building and detonating explosive devices to help carry out their kidnap plan.

One defendant admitted to blowing up balloons filled with BB's in a stove, though played it off as a benign experiment. The prosecution disagreed and said people could have died or been injured, including the suspect's 12-year-old daughter, who was at that militia group training exercise that day.

The witness who helped crack the case was a former Wolverine Watchmen who told jurors he quit the group after hearing the men talking about killing police. The witness said he told his cop friend about it and then got a call from the FBI asking him if he would go undercover. He agreed, and became known to the group as Big Dan.

The defense argued that Big Dan was the backbone of the government's case and the true leader of the kidnap plot, maintaining he incited the suspects, organized most of the meetings and trainings, and ran the whole show.

It was Big Dan, the defense noted, who drove the suspects to a warehouse in Ypsilanti, tricking them into thinking they were going for beers and wings but got them arrested instead.

Two of those men who were arrested in the sting were co-defendants Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks. Both men cut deals in the case, pleaded guilty and testified against the others at trial, telling the jury they were willing participants in the kidnap plot, and so were their cohorts. No one entrapped them, they said, or their co-defendants.

Only one of the defendants took the stand in his own defense at trial: Daniel Harris, who got combative with the prosecutor. Harris denied being part of any plot to kidnap the governor, telling the jury that Big Dan was the real leader of the whole thing.

Two of the four defendants put on no defense at all but let the jury decide the case based on what the government presented.

Multiple undercover FBI agents and informants who had infiltrated the group also testified at trial, and corroborated many of the recorded statements that were played for the jury.

The defendants are Adam Fox, 38, of Potterville; Daniel Harris, 24, of Lake Orion; Brandon Caserta, 33, of Canton and Barry Croft, 46, of Delaware. All are charged with kidnapping conspiracy, and three are charged with weapons of mass destruction.

Croft and Harris were also charged with possession of an unregistered destructive device, and Harris is charged with possession of an illegal short-barrel rifle.


From ABC news:
Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism leader on the National Security Council, said Friday's verdicts were a significant legal development when it comes to federal prosecutions.

"In a post-9/11 counterterrorism world, the Department of Justice has rarely lost high profile counterterrorism cases based on successful entrapment claims, and this development punches a hole in that relatively unblemished track record the past two decades," he told ABC News. "It may also give momentum to other anti-government groups and extremists who believe in similar causes like those pursued by the individuals in this case."

 
6 were arrested, 2 plead out, 2 not guilty and 2 will be retried. Probably.

If the jury thought the 2 who were found not guilty, not guilty then chances are high they simply were close to the kidnapping scheme but not guilty.

The fact that they were locked on the other 2 means there is something to the other 2.

It's not over yet for 2 of them. and 2 already plead out.
That's not how it works. You aren't guilty of something just because files are charged. You aren't guilty until you are found unanimously guilty. A deadlocked jury doesn't mean they're guilty.

I hate to use the phrase, but you're pretty much boot-licking here. The feds didn't do their job correctly if these guys actually did anything wrong.
 
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