Jury Hands Out Stunning Verdict in the Alleged Kidnap Plot Against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.

A jury was not convinced on charges against Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta as they voted to acquit the defendants. Harris was facing four counts while Caserta faced one count of kidnapping conspiracy. Both men are free to go. They already spent a year and a half in jail while waiting for their case to go to trial.

There were two other defendants, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, but the jury remained deadlocked on charges against them. As a result, a mistrial was declared and they will have a new trial. This has been a massive blow to the local government that claimed they uncovered a historic kidnap plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

🚨 POLL: Do you agree with the jury?
YES 👍 or NO 👎

The four men have been publicly accused by the government of being domestic terrorists. It appears the evidence was not sufficient enough to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The U.S. attorney’s office in Grand Rapids said it would retry the men, and that it was “obviously” disappointed in the outcome of the case.

The arrests and charges were the result of an FBI sting operation. Authorities claimed that they uncovered the violent extremism of four like-minded men who bonded and vented about the government controlling their lives.

On the other hand, the defendants argue they were victims of entrapment and say the FBI came up with the kidnap idea and pressured them into saying and doing things they wouldn’t have otherwise.

They formed a group called the Wolverine Watchmen, which proclaimed to be a Michigan militia. The FBI claims they wanted to spark a second Civil War and they planned to use the Whitmer kidnaping as a starting point.

Whitmer responded, “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. There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened.

More on this story via USA Today:

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 home 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 men to the warehouse, tricking them into thinking they were going there to make a down payment on explosives, pick up military gear and then head to Buffalo Wild Wings for beer and chicken.

Instead, FBI agents were there waiting with 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.

“What the FBI did was unconscionable,” Caserta’s lawyer, Michael Hills, said outside the courthouse. He has long argued that his client and the others were entrapped by rogue FBI informants and agents, including one who ran a cybersecurity company while investigating the case.

“To me, this was a signal,” Hills said of the verdict. “A rogue FBI agent trying to line his own pockets with his own cybersecurity company, pushing a conspiracy that just never was, never was going to be. Our governor was never in any danger. And I think the jury – they didn’t get all of it – but they smelled enough of it.”

According to trial testimony, the men 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 they didn’t think that was doable, so they decided to kidnap the governor instead, according to trial testimony by undercover FBI agents and informants.