As RedState reported over the last few days, multiple revelations regarding the FBI's involvement in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have put the bureau on the defensive. After originally learning that the FBI played a pivotal role in birthing and planning the plot, it was also revealed that an undercover FBI agent who served as the chief source of information was being prosecuted for beating his wife.
Now, more details show just how integral the FBI was in what ultimately transpired.
Here is the story in the FBI’s affidavit. Note:
a) the impetus for the investigation is sedition on social media.
b) the investigation starts with a guy named Adam Fox, who, following a meeting in Ohio, reaches out to a militia that has already been infiltrated by the FBI. pic.twitter.com/HD1W9ZtAdw— David Hines (@hradzka) July 22, 2021
Adam Fox, focus of the FBI affidavit, is also at that protest. He doesn’t know the Wolverine Watchmen yet.
Joe Morrison, one of the WWs, is invited to a militia meeting in Dublin, Ohio. He does not go.
Adam Fox, also invited, does.
The meeting sponsor is an FBI informant. pic.twitter.com/KFVUxJnNjU
— David Hines (@hradzka) July 22, 2021
This is the crucial bit: Joe Morrison decides to hook up the Wolverines with Adam Fox, who has radicalized to the extent of wanting to seize the state Capitol and take hostages.
Except *Morrison hadn’t been at the meeting where the FBI obviously had set up him and Fox to meet.* pic.twitter.com/z5H2QN7Wrf
— David Hines (@hradzka) July 22, 2021
The FBI pretty clearly set up that initial meeting to connect as many people they were investigating as possible under the kind auspices of an informant host, and then see what possibilities for set-ups that offered them so they could pick the most promising ones to roll up.
— David Hines (@hradzka) July 22, 2021
There are a lot of moving parts here, and whether one believes what the FBI did crossed any lines or not is ultimately going to be in the eye of the beholder. If someone is more pro-FBI, they'll no doubt insist these are standard tactics and that there's nothing wrong with the FBI quite literally orchestrating a crime in order to nail people willing to participate.
For others, the question of whether the FBI should be going this far to set up and goad people into crimes in order to catch “terrorists” is going to be paramount. The story confirms that the initial meeting that got Adam Fox, the supposed radicalized person in question, involved in the plot was sponsored by an FBI agent. That's going much further than just implanting informants in an already existent situation.
Putting aside whether any of this qualifies as entrapment, a question no one without more information can confidently answer, the obvious issue is whether we want unaccountable government authorities taking online rhetoric, bad as it may be, and using that as the basis to essentially set people up. At the end of the day, the plotters made their own choices, but would they have made those choices if not presented with the opportunity?
Personally, I think what the FBI did here is going too far given their track record. I get that there will be times when criminals are put in a position to show their guilt, but if the bureau is having to birth plots and set up meetings in order to even get things off the ground that most likely would have never happened otherwise, that shows a level of involvement that assumes way too much. In short, it's ripe for abuse, and the fact that one of the lead agents on this case turned out to be a non-credible wife-beater isn't doing much to change my opinion on that. Does anyone really believe that guy followed protocol?
Frankly, no one trusts the FBI to have this much leeway and power, even under the guise of stopping “terrorism.” Certainly not when DOJ and FBI leadership continue to promote ideas that appear to be blatantly political in nature. Lastly, there are going to be a lot of people wondering if similar tactics were used in relation to January 6th. Honestly, those questions are justified, in my opinion. We'll see where this all leads.
