The Post Millennial has the news:
BREAKING: Three men accused of Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plot ACQUITTEDhttps://t.co/Ysg6eMFMSc
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 15, 2023
From the article:
The last three men who were charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer have all been found not guilty. William Null, twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor were among the 14 charged in the alleged plot, and all three have been acquitted.
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of kidnapping conspiracy in 2022.
William and Michael Null as well as Eric Molitor were found not guilty of providing support for a terrorist act and a weapons charge, according to WLNS 6.
The three were accused of supporting the plan's leaders by participating in military-style drills, as well as traveling to see Whitmer’s northern Michigan vacation home.
Of course, previously there was a verdict that suggested that some of the people charged were entrapped by FBI agents, as explained in this Reason article:
https://t.co/gGI1LktjV2
— Terry Kelly (@SlickTrick14) August 16, 2023
It's (Almost) Always the Feds: How the FBI Fabricates Schemes To Entrap Would-Be Radicals
The FBI's long history of using informants and manufactured plots to prosecute extremists
From the article:
It looked like the case against the Michigan militia members who allegedly plotted to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020 was going to be another data point in that trend: an extremist group riddled with FBI informants set up to take the fall for all their big talk. An unusual thing happened, though. The jury didn't buy it. When the verdicts were read a year and a half later in March, two of the militia members were acquitted, and the jury deadlocked on the other two. …
The FBI has typically portrayed these investigations as efforts to thwart domestic terror, but all too often, the result has been to encourage or invent plots that were unlikely to succeed. In the Whitmer case and others, the feds weren't stopping terror: They were helping bumbling defendants plan and enact it.
However, if ABC’s reporting is to be believed, that doesn’t seem to be the issue in this case:
A Michigan jury just acquitted three men who were targeted by the FBI to execute an FBI-concocted plan to kidnap the Michigan governor. https://t.co/e6SmPV7UMQ
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 15, 2023
By this reporting, the jury appears to have found that they just didn’t do what they were accused of:
William Null and Molitor testified in their own defense, claiming they didn't know the true nature of the plot until the last minute.
William Null told the jury that while on a nighttime surveillance mission, he didn't know they were going to the governor's cabin.
Molitor testified he feared for his life during surveillance of the cabin with Adam Fox, one of the plot leaders who was convicted on federal charges.
‘What happens if we don't do this stuff?’ Molitor told the court. ‘He wasn't saying, 'Shoot somebody' -- that would have been a hard no. He didn't say, 'Blow something up' -- that would have been a hard no. He said, 'Take a video.' I took a video.’
Michael Null declined to testify.
Thus, William Null makes it sound like he didn’t know what he was a part of. That would be a complete defense. Meanwhile, Molitor appears to be suggesting his participation was involuntary. And while Michael Null didn’t testify, perhaps his brother’s testimony provided cover for him, too.
However, legal reporting is so endemically awful, we only feel semi-confident in concluding that entrapment was not part of the case.
Naturally, reactions are pouring in:
Of course not
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 15, 2023
So do they get to keep their FBI pensions?
— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) September 15, 2023
This next post was in response to a deleted post that said something like "was this the Klye Rittenhouse judge?"
If the state needs the judge on their side to win the trial, then they probably shouldn’t be trying that person.
— piercheney (@LVpolitic) September 15, 2023
"Rule of law"
— The Artist Formerly Known as Eric (@breakingbaht) September 15, 2023
*law rules in a way a progressive doesn't like*
"Well, this is just unacceptable."
Yep.
Militias are legal in the US; The FBI doesn't like militias because they don't like civilians to be trained, armed, and capable of taking care of themselves and others without any need for gov't or the FBI. They infiltrate otherwise legal activity and entrap people.
— John Basinger (@JCBasinger) September 15, 2023
This is true. At its most basic, a militia is nothing more than a group of people assembling, with guns. The First Amendment protects the right of assembly, and the second protects the guns—with some narrow exceptions to both rights.
the FBI needs to do a better job of entrapping American citizens. what is this? AMATEUR HOUR?! https://t.co/6HUqq8k1r2
— siraj hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) September 15, 2023
take notes, @FBI: if this op was run by the CIA, Gretchen Whitmer would be JFK’d https://t.co/PLRfV3lo11
— The Habibi Bros (@habibi_bros) September 15, 2023
The damage was already done. It helped her get re-elected!
— highlander (@OldNorseman84) September 15, 2023
Meanwhile this guy thought it related to the drinking water problem in Flint:
Why is the question not being asked as to why these men felt it necessary to assassinate the governor in the first place - FBI plot or not? We all know the stories; I have personally met people from Michigan who can attest, where the water in Flint is poisonous, where Detroit has… pic.twitter.com/0bjd8nOFyE
— Mothman Dan (@Centaur221) September 15, 2023
The full text reads:
Why is the question not being asked as to why these men felt it necessary to assassinate the governor in the first place - FBI plot or not? We all know the stories; I have personally met people from Michigan who can attest, where the water in Flint is poisonous, where Detroit has become a byword for Hell and urban decay since the 1970's, where the infrastructure and society has decayed so much that years later the anti-government militia movement still thrives from the 1990's? Is mismanagement of the state so poor that people are willing to murder state officials as a result of it? Why have has the standard of living, the amount of crime, and the general state of things become so poor in that state, to the point of becoming less than 3rd World? Even in other nations in South America, and regions of Africa, they have adequate drinking water.
No rebellion occurs in history without some sort of justification, and these men are no exception to this rule. Perhaps - and I am only suggesting - that if the state government did not mismanage the state to the point of absolute ruin individuals like this would not be motivated to carry out attacks such as these.
As awful as that water situation was, we never heard of any claim that the water was the motivation.
We will also say this. Violence is a poor way to detect injustice. Naturally, as a matter of history, sometimes good people will be pushed too hard by the government or other powers in their lives and decide their only choice is to get violent. That’s basically what the founders argued in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the principle followed in various slave revolts.
But let’s not forget that evil can be violent, too:
Watch how it happened on September 11 day 22 years ago (911)#September11 #NeverForget911 Molly Ringwald #911Memorial #911Anniversary pic.twitter.com/7pCQmtT10G
— CONTEXT AND NO CONTEXT VID AND PICS (@Context2X) September 11, 2023
Remembering the Oklahoma City bombing https://t.co/N40jNrf6ut pic.twitter.com/D1ZQYe0vvT
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 17, 2020
60 years after 4 little girls were killed in a KKK attack on the 16th Street Baptist Church, memories of the lives that were taken live onhttps://t.co/NuJIMz4qw0
— Lee Sessions (@LeeSessions77) September 15, 2023
The September 11, 2001 attack was motivated, in bin Laden’s own words, by a belief that if they killed a bunch of innocent people, Americans would recognize that Islam was awesome and start converting en masse—which strikes us as a slander on the Muslims who abhor such violence. Tim McVeigh believed that murdering a bunch of children of FBI and IRS agents would lead to white Christians rising up, overthrowing the government, and then nuking Israel—which definitely offends this Christian who happens to be white. Finally, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church was motivated by racism. The point is that historically sometimes violence is motivated by good causes, and sometimes it is motivated by bad—sometimes downright idiotic—causes.
Discernment is necessary.
***
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