(PatrioticPost.com)- In the ongoing trial related to the so-called kidnapping plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the judge in the case is allowing the defense to address the claims of entrapment while speaking to the jury.
In the initial round of opening statements to the jury on Wednesday, lawyers tread lightly on the question of whether the FBI informants were actively enticing the four defendants to commit crimes they wouldn’t have considered on their own.
Subsequently, however, US District Judge Robert Jonker took the unusual step of permitting the lawyers to specifically address the defense’s claim of entrapment.
The attorneys representing the four defendants are seeking acquittals arguing that there was excessive influence and manipulation by both FBI informants and agents.
Defense attorney Joshua Blanchard said the defendants were engaged in “stoned-crazy talk” rather than a plan and argued that the FBI knew that was the case. Blanchard said the FBI informant recorded their stoned musings which included putting Whitmer on a kite to whisk away.
US Attorney Jonathan Roth contends that the four defendants, Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta, were “willing and eager” to kidnap Whitmer “long before law enforcement got involved.”
Roth told the jury that the evidence, which includes messages, videos, and social media posts, would prove that the defendants wanted to commit violence even without the prompting of the informants.
Prosecutors played a video from Adam Fox’s Facebook showing him holding a semi-automatic rifle and talking about defending against an oppressive government. The video, however, does not mention Gretchen Whitmer or kidnapping her.
The attorney for Daniel Harris argued that her client was inspired by a man known as “Big Dan,” who, it turns out, was an FBI informant. She told jurors that “Big Dan” became the de facto leader the others deferred to. She also told jurors that “Big Dan” at one point told his FBI handlers the defendants were “just wasting my time. They’re more worried about the world coming to an end.”
But the prosecution wants the jury to believe that the defendants were the “masterminds” behind a plot to kidnap Whitmer and create a “war zone here in Michigan.” US Attorney Roth disputed the defense’s argument that this was nothing but pot-fueled talk, arguing that the defendants “wanted to separate themselves from people who were all talk.”
