President Joe Biden exploited an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) in October 2020, blaming President Donald Trump after sensational arrests in a crucial swing state — yet the trial ended Friday without any convictions.
Two of the accused, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, were acquitted. The jury deadlocked on the charges against Adam Fox and Barry Croft, the supposed leaders of the plot.
The Biden campaign and the establishment media treated all of the accused as if they were Trump supporters, yet Caserta was seen online in front of an anarchist flag, and Harris had joined a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020 — both facts that were buried by the Democrat and the media in blaming Trump.
At the time the FBI announced the charges in October 2020, with the presidential campaign at a crucial point, Biden suggested that the defendants were white supremacists, and that Trump was at fault for the plot:
There is no place for hate in America. And both of us [including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) have been talking about this for some time, about how white supremacists and these militias area a genuine threat. I want to compliment the FBI and the police agencies for what they did, and how they stepped up. But look –the words of a president matter. Whether they can — you’ve heard me say this before. They can cause a nation to have th market rise or fall, go to war or bring peace, but they can also breathe oxygen into those who are filled with hate and danger, and I just think It’s got to stop. The president has to realize the words he utters matter.
There was no evidence at the time tying Trump to the plot whatsoever, nor did any such evidence emerge during the trial.
As the trial continued, questions were raised about the role of the FBI informants, suggesting that they may have entrapped the defendants, or concocted the plot themselves. As Buzzfeed News — hardly a right-wing outlet — noted last year:
An examination of the case by BuzzFeed News also reveals that some of those informants, acting under the direction of the FBI, played a far larger role than has previously been reported. Working in secret, they did more than just passively observe and report on the actions of the suspects. Instead, they had a hand in nearly every aspect of the alleged plot, starting with its inception. The extent of their involvement raises questions as to whether there would have even been a conspiracy without them.
The judge issued jury instructions on entrapment, telling jurors they could find the defendants not guilty if they believed “[t]hat the agents or informants sought to persuade or pressure the men into agreeing to such a plot; and that the defendants showed no predisposition to commit such a crime until after the FBI came into the picture,” the Associated Press noted.
The FBI had shown a consistent hostility toward Trump both before and during his administration, with key FBI figures involved in pursuing the false “Russia collusion” conspiracy theory, even lying to a court to obtain a surveillance warrant.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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