Suspects in Gretchen Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Not Entrapped by FBI: Judge
Source: Newsweek
Three men charged in connection to the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer over alleged frustration with her COVID policies for the state were not "entrapped" by the FBI, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wilson denied a motion from the three men requesting the case be thrown out and said the FBI's actions, including the use of a confidential informant, did not "escalate" the alleged kidnapping plot, according to The Detroit News.
Paul Bellar, 23, Joseph Morrison, 27, and his father-in-law Pete Musico, 44, are three of the more than a dozen people charged in connection with the plot, and they are currently set to face trial in September, The Detroit News reported. They face charges of gang membership and providing support to a terrorist act, along with a felony firearm possession charge.
"I just cannot, in reviewing this matter, find that the government somehow pressured any one of these individuals to participate in anything or to get in line in this way of thinking," Wilson was quoted by The Detroit News. "That was the very reason we got the confidential informant in the very beginning, as soon as he joined the group and learned that they were talking about harming police officers and potentially politicians that he contacted the FBI because of his concern out of what potentially could happen."
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/suspects-in-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-not-entrapped-by-fbi-judge/ar-AAUuaIV
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