“But there’s still pressure to make cases and that’s caused the FBI to adopt this methodology of manufacturing terrorism plots.” “Counter-terrorism tactics have evolved because there wasn’t a lot of international terrorism occurring on the US soil,” said Mike German, author of Disrupt, Discredit and Divide: How the FBI Damages Democracy. It has raised the question: were the Wolverines more dupes than dedicated terrorists? Those counter-terrorist techniques, reapplied to the threat of white nationalist radicalization that Joe Biden has repeatedly said is the “ most lethal threat” to the US, will play a part in how the Wolverine Watchmen trial unfolds. The accused, from left: Barry Croft, Daniel Harris, Adam Fox and Brandon Caserta. In the post 9/11 era, when internal US security agencies focused on the existence of Muslim extremist plots, several prosecutions, including of the Newburgh Four, hinged on informants actively promoting a plot before turning would-be perpetrators over to the government to be tried on conspiracy charges.Īctivists and civil rights experts have argued that the FBI has frequently overstepped boundaries, essentially egging on people to participate in plots and locking up people for crimes that they would never have committed had it not been for the intervention of law enforcement. The defense’s argument of FBI entrapment draws on a long history. “There was no plan, there was no agreement and no kidnapping,” defense attorney Joshua Blanchard said last week. The FBI, according to defense filings, deployed at least 12 informants, as well as several undercover agents. Far from being a dedicated bunch of coup-plotters, their attorneys argue, the Wolverine Watchmen are hapless victims of FBI entrapment who had been induced by paid informants to commit crimes they would not otherwise have considered. But as more evidence has unfolded and the trial has begun, a different narrative has emerged. When they were arrested the case seemed a slam dunk. Jurors, they have said, would see social media posts and hear secretly recorded conversations, highly inflammatory language and details of a plan to take down a “tyrant”. At the moment the FBI arrested the men, prosecutors argued in court, they had plans to acquire a bomb to blow up a bridge near Whitmer’s home to hinder police.
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