Michigan Liberty Militia
The Michigan Militia believed a well-armed citizenry is the best form of homeland security, a better deterrent to crime, invasion, terrorism, and tyranny by any arm of government. Some of these anti-government ideals began to blend with Christian Identity views that promoted white supremacy and anti-Semitism.
White supremacists are individuals and groups that believe in the supremacy of the white race, oppose immigration and, in some cases, advocate the expulsion from the country of non-whites. Once boasting organized groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations, the movement has become increasingly disjointed and leaderless in recent years, with most members now operating online.
Although many white supremacists don't advocate violence, a growing number of individuals inspired by far-right ideology have carried out deadly shootings in recent years. The violent elements of the far right are known as “accelerationists” because they seek to accelerate a race war. FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that most of the FBI's domestic terrorism investigations involve white supremacist groups.
Livingston County could be among a growing number of Michigan counties adopting resolutions to support gun rights. The Livingston County Board of Commissioners will consider a measure at its 24 Feb. 2020 meeting to make the county a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” after a referral from the Public Safety and Infrastructure and Development Committee on Feb. 18. The Sanctuary Counties movement is part of a national response to Virginia’s recent attempts to create stronger gun control, including red-flag legislation that would allow law enforcement to temporarily take someone’s firearms if a judge deemed them a danger do themselves or others.
Militia extremists in Michinga were primarily motivated by their opposition to government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions. On 15 April 2020 when supporters and allies of President Donald Trump organised thousands of people for “Operation Gridlock”, jamming the streets of Lansing with their cars to call out what they said was the overreach of Whitmer’s strict stay-at-home order.
On 17 April 2020 Donald Trump targeted Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia in tweets calling for efforts to "liberate" the states amid protests over stay-at-home orders aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19. Trump first tweeted "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" Then, a minute later, the president tweeted "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" Minutes after that, he added in another message, "LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!"
The state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, was the site of an angry protest 30 Apri 2020 that included armed members of the Michigan Liberty Militia. Hundreds of anti-lockdown demonstrators, some of them armed, gathered at the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, last Thursday during a session which a skeleton crew of state legislators gathered to consider a measure rebuking Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Members of the militia group stood near the doors to the chamber in the capitol building before the vote on the extension of Governor Gretchen Whitmer's emergency declaration/stay-at-home order due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Lansing, Michigan.
At one point during the legislative deliberations, dozens of protesters – many without face coverings and some with rifles slung around their chests – entered the Capitol and demanded to be let into the House chamber, which was closed to the public to allow room for representatives and reporters to spread apart. The crowd shouted, “Let us in” while mask-wearing sergeants and state police blocked them. Demonstrators were allowed in the state Senate, which has fewer members and remained in session to also authorise legal action. Firearms have been legally allowed in the Michigan state Capitol building for some time.
Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, the strictest in the US, was in effect through May 15. House Republicans wanted changes, such as allowing elective medical and dental procedures again and certainty on the date she plans to reopen the economy on a regional basis. Meanwhile, the governor had allowed some businesses, such as lawn-care companies and greenhouses, to resume operating. Speakers at the “American Patriot Rally,” which had different organisers to the mid-April protest, questioned the deadliness of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They also said Whitmer’s stay-at-home order violated constitutional rights, and urged people to open their businesses on May 1 in disregard of her order.
The militia group had been brought to the attention of the FBI by a local police department in March 2020, when members of the militia group were attempting to obtain the addresses of local law-enforcement officers. At the time, the FBI interviewed a member of the militia group who was concerned about the group’s plans to target and kill police officers, and that person agreed to become a Confidential Human Sources (CHS). In April 2020, two of the suspects in later arrests, Michael and William Null, were part of the group that stormed the Michigan Statehouse to protest the extension of Whitmer’s emergency powers. These powers gave the governor the authority to continue lockdown measures throughout the state. William Null later appeared on stage at an anti-lockdown rally in May alongside a Michigan sheriff who announced his refusal to enforce lockdown measures.
The Department of Justice announced 08 October 2020 that six men have been arrested and charged federally with conspiring to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta conspired to kidnap the Governor from her vacation home in the Western District of Michigan. Under federal law, each faced any term of years up to life in prison if convicted. Fox, Garbin, Franks, Harris, and Caserta are residents of Michigan. Croft is a resident of Delaware.v Over the nation's history, violence against governors has been rare. The only time a sitting U.S. state governor was assassinated was in Kentucky in 1900, when Kentucky Gov. William Goebel was shot in the chest near the state capitol building just three days after he was sworn into office.
The FBI began an investigation earlier in 2020 after becoming aware through social media that a group of individuals was discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components. Through confidential sources, undercover agents, and clandestine recordings, law enforcement learned particular individuals were planning to kidnap the Michigan Governor and acting in furtherance of that plan. This group used operational security measures, including communicating by encrypted messaging platforms and used code words and phrases in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement.
The state’s attorney general charged seven others with threatening public officials and supporting plans for terrorist acts, while an eighth individual faced only the latter charge. During a bond hearing on October 13, an FBI special agent testified the suspects discussed plans to murder or kidnap a sitting governor in a state with strict lockdown measures. The suspects focused on Whitmer, the governor of their own state, but also discussed targeting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, referring to both as “tyrants.”
On two occasions, members of the conspiracy conducted coordinated surveillance on the Michingan Governor’s vacation home. Fox and Croft discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the vacation home and Fox even inspected the underside of an M-31 highway bridge for places to seat an explosive. Among other activities, Fox purchased a taser for use in the kidnapping and the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities. The FBI and Michigan State Police executed arrests as multiple conspirators met to pool funds for explosives and exchange tactical gear.
United States Attorney Andrew Birge announced 17 December 2020 that a federal grand jury has indicted six men on a charge of conspiracy to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta each face up to life in prison if convicted. Fox, Garbin, Franks, Harris, and Caserta are residents of Michigan. Croft is a resident of Delaware. The six were previously charged by complaint, but under the United States Constitution, the government must present such a felony case to a grand jury and obtain an indictment to proceed with the prosecution.
A jury in Michigan on 08 April 2022 acquitted two men, and was unable to return a verdict on two others, who were accused of hatching a plot to kidnap and possibly execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The FBI was heavily involved in the scheme, and the men argued that they were enticed into planning the kidnapping by a dozen agency informants.
Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were found not guilty of conspiracy, with Harris also acquitted of firearms and explosives charges. A mistrial was declared in the cases of the two other men, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, meaning that while the pair walked free on Friday, the government can try them again in the future.
“We’ll be ready for another trial. ... We’ll eventually get what we wanted out of this, which is the truth and the justice I think Adam is entitled to,” Fox's attorney, Christopher Gibbons, told reporters after the verdicts were delivered. “Our governor was never in any danger,” Caserta’s lawyer, Michael Hill, said outside the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids.
The four men were arrested in October 2020, when an undercover FBI informant drove them to a warehouse where they were under the impression that they would be buying explosives. Instead, they were handcuffed and led away by waiting agents. A total of 14 men were arrested, while two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pled guilty and testified during the trial, and eight others are awaiting trial in state courts. The government contended that the group planned to abduct Whitmer from her vacation home, place her “on trial,” and sentence her to death, thus kicking off a second civil war.
Defense lawyers argued from the outset that the men were set up by the FBI. Court documents revealed that at least a dozen confidential FBI informants took part in the alleged plot, and that the suspects were easily manipulated by their undercover comrades. Fox, whom the government attempted to paint as the ringleader of the band, was referred to by Garbin as “Captain Autism,” and the four men’s lawyers argued throughout the case that their clients lacked the mental wherewithal to orchestrate a complex kidnapping plot.
“I keep trying to push, press on them, where are you guys wanting to go with this? Because I’m wanting [to] know, are you wasting my time in a sense?” one informant said during the operation to his FBI superiors, suggesting that the agency was heavily involved in pushing the men to commit crimes.
According to an analysis of court documents by Revolver News, a right-wing US news site, the plotters’ driver and “explosives expert” were both agents, while the militia’s head of security was an undercover informant. An FBI source was present at every meeting leading up to the supposed kidnap attempt and, of the five men who drove a van to kidnap Whitmer, three were FBI agents and informants. Agents also testified at length against Harris, Caserta, Fox, and Croft during their weeks-long trial.
The case ignited intense debate in the US about the supposed threat of “domestic terrorism.” Following the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill last January, which some suspect was also instigated by federal agents, countering this alleged threat became a central pillar of the Biden administration’s policy platform.
In the months between the kidnapping plot and the Capitol Hill riot, the head of the FBI field office in Detroit who oversaw the infiltration of the plot, Steven D’Antuono, was promoted to lead the agency’s Washington, DC field office. Conservatives cheered Friday’s result. “Can’t downplay what happened in Michigan today,” pundit Jack Posobiec wrote on Twitter. “An FBI agent’s testimony used to be an instant guilty verdict from juries. Now their credibility is such a disaster that they’re losing cases that used to be slam dunks.”
Whitmer, a Democrat, saw things differently. “Today, Michiganders…are living through the normalization of political violence,” her chief of staff wrote in a statement. “There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened.”
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