Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the target this month of a plot of extremists to kidnap her and storm the state capitol. After the arrests of the primary suspects, Whitmer lashed about at President Donald Trump for failing to condemn right wing violence. That is certainly a common criticism. However, Whitmer also attacked Attorney General Bill Barr and suggested that he knew about the plot. It was a curious attack since the FBI uncovered the plot and the DOJ is prosecuting the plot. There is no indication that the DOJ was delaying action. To the contrary, it acted to thwart the plot and protect Whitmer. The other question is why would Barr lie about his knowledge? To what logical end? He was not asked about any threats but specifically if he knew about signs and statements made a protest in Lansing, Michigan in June — a protest that was under state, not federal, jurisdiction.
On October 6, 2020, Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were arrested by the FBI on the charge that they conspired to kidnap the Governor from her vacation home in the Western District of Michigan. The plot was uncovered by a FBI undercover agent. A total of 13 individuals have now been arrested by the FBI. It is a reminder of the threat posed by extreme right-wing groups in this country. Such right-wing attacks still account for a largely majority of such violent attacks, as discussed in my testimony in the Senate. The FBI has made right-wing extremism a priority for investigation and prosecution for years.
Notably, this was a mixed group of right-wing extremists and at least one anarchist who hated Donald Trump.
What confused me was the Barr statement. Yesterday on CNN, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel cited Barr’s testimony to Congress in July and suggested that he committed perjury in denying knowledge of threats during the June protests in the state Capitol against Whitmer. I am familiar with that exchange because I criticized the questioning by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and her colleagues. The Democratic members would ask questions and then prevent Barr from answering by immediately reclaiming their time. This is the exchange:
Barr was specifically asked about the protest that had just occurred in Lansing, Michigan. That was a protest handled by state authorities under state law. He had no role in the protest nor did the federal government. Barr tried to say that this was the same period when he was focused on violent protests around the White House and was not involved with the state protests in Michigan. Jayapal however would not let him explain. Any reasonable person would balk at this one-sided diatribe as the basis for charging that the Attorney General is a felon and perjurer.
What was also curious about Jayapal’s statement was that she was chiding Barr for not being involved in a state protest when she and others criticized the intervention of the federal government in other protests in cities like Portland. In Portland, the federal government was protecting a federal courthouse from arson and rioting. In Lansing, there was no federal involvement or interest. Moreover, she denounced all of the protesters for ignoring stay at home orders while Jayapal has supported and participated in even larger BLM protests.
What did fall under federal jurisdiction was any actual plot for violent acts against Whitmer or others. That was what the DOJ discovered and stopped.
It is entirely possible that Barr was unaware of specific signs and statements cited by Jayapal by protesters in a protest in Lansing, Michigan. He may or may not have been aware of this investigation, though he clearly would not discuss such an undercover operation. Yet, that was not the question. The question concerned statements and signs at that particular protest and Barr was saying that he did not have authority or involvement in such a state protest in Michigan. I would assume that Barr was made aware at some time of the undercover operation. Indeed, during this same period, Barr and FBI Director Wray were publicly discussing the targeting of right-wing extremist groups and they both acknowledged the involvement of such groups in violent protests.
Moreover, the arrests show that, under Barr, the crackdown on right-wing groups has continued and that the DOJ and FBI acted to protect Whitmer. Barr has denounced the plot against Whitmer as “abhorrent.”
Under federal law, each of original six arrestees face terms up to life in prison, if convicted.
I realize that everything in politics today must be a deep conspiracy on the left or right. It is not enough to disagree with one another. We must now declare the opposing party a criminal. In this case, Whitmer is denounced an Attorney General whose department just uncovered a plot and protected her from harm.
The eminently culpable Christopher Wray can uncover a Michigan Militia Coup D’etat in Michigan.
The same eminently culpable Christopher Wary cannot uncover the Obama Coup D’etat in America.
The eminently culpable Christopher Wray’s LEFT eye works fine while Christopher Wray’s RIGHT eye is totally blind (or vice versa, depending on one’s ideological perspective).
C’mon, man!
C’mon, Chris, you’re not fooling us.
Is it 1984?
Perhaps 1981?
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
– William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987
The woman is clearly deranged. Her destructive behaviour may also indicate sexual repression (as with Jeanne Moreau’s character in: ‘Mademoiselle’). However that may be, the Corona fraud has clearly given every toparch in the country an opportunity to go well outside the bounds of his authority. Whitmer probably carries with her a pair of poultry shears, to be used on men who defy her.
Another woman whose intelligence is as cringeworthy as a Harris smirk.
Are you talking about yourself DV?
Kidnapping Gov. Whitmer would be like the “Ransom of Red Chief.” Whitmer is a very nasty person
Very clever.
Turley writes:
“I realize that everything in politics today must be a deep conspiracy on the left or right. It is not enough to disagree with one another. We must now declare the opposing party a criminal….”
Curiously he avoids commenting on our President instructing the AG to arrest Joe Biden and Barack Obama while obsessing again over the equivalent of speeding violations by Democrats like Whitmer and Jayapal. It’s not like this is not a pattern with Turley. It is and it’s embarrassingly obvious..
You can argue left wing vs right wing until you are blue, but they plainly are opposed to President Trump.
And at least one was pardoned by a Democrat governor.
News reports say some are Trump supporters, some aren’t.
When someone has published a video of himself saying he hates Trump it should not be difficult to figure it out from there.
Now another turns out to be a BLM supporter.
Rely on what they have actually said rather than ‘news reports’ that are nothing but dishonest propaganda.
Do you understand what “some” means?
The news I read relied on what they have actually said, bro.
Rely on what the suspects have said and done rather than ‘news reports’ that are basically propaganda these days
Wow, news reports…
Compelling.
Whitmer is so political she’s out of her gourd.
Regardless of your beliefs about her, you should oppose kidnapping plots.
Here’s Turley, bobbing and weaving to patch together another right wing tirade. The point of the whole experience is that these mutts on the extreme right are just as, if not more, organized and dangerous than any Antifa mutts. Hows about using your legal brain, Turley and sit on the bench, in the middle. Call a spade a spade.
Left-wing or Right-wing does not equal Democrat or Republican, unless the party openly and actively supports them. Now which political party has supported radicals and anarchists?
Both parties have supported radicals.
One party even supports monuments to confederate radicals.
Please correct article – since when are anarchists “Right Wing”, or are you just parroting NPR talking points? Casually grouping these individuals with the right in any way without evidence is just as bad as a lot of the crap that routinely call out. Love reading your articles; you are usually spot on. Just hit a nerve I guess.
I’m a resident of Michigan and Governor Whitmer is becoming an embarrassment to the residents. So disappointing.
Seems she is disappointed the kidnapping did not take place.
Probably the people of Michigan are disappointed.
Probably the people of Michigan are disappointed.
What if the kid napping was a success and the kid nappears demanded a ransom and nobody paid it.
Given the record of the FBI I still suspect that this is a put up job manufactured by the agency to further a political narrative,
But the Department of Inspector Clouseau already seems to have screwed up. These knuckleheads hate Trump and some appear to be BLM supporters. Real white supremacists to frame appear to be in short supply.
This sounds like Clinton Part II the current version of the Steele dossier Fraud. I woudn’t give it any credence unless there was some unassailable source of information due to the non stop PCRap we’ve been treated to from the now exposed as what they truly are recreation of the USSR’s Communist Party as witnessed by non other Putin. The left has cried woof woof too many times only for us to find out the word is missing the letter L and the Wolf is the DNC itself.
“why would Barr lie about his knowledge? ”
Why does anyone in politics lie? Not saying the Barr lied but it is a naive question to suggest that politicians in general and Barr in particular do not lie. There are reasons and there are reasons.
So Barr has no authority in Seattle Washington but should exercise hs authority in Lansing Michigan. He should stand down in Seatle but crack heads in Lansing. With every day comes another exposure of hypocrisy.
So you confuse federal law and state law.
TDS interferes with cognitive processes; just read some of the commentators on this site.
Whitmer just illustrates the problem.
Is it accurate to call this a “right-wing” plot? The only details I know about the suspects is that one is self-described anarchist who has posted anti-Trump messages on social media. If that is true and his co-conspirators are of a like mind, then right-wing seems like putting this in the wrong ideological box. And might partly explain why “a large majority” of attacks are labeled as right-wing.
It’s pretty easy to find news reports that link most of these men to right-wing groups. Here’s an example:
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/09/922319136/michigan-domestic-terror-plot-sends-shockwaves-through-militia-world
A search on [michigan whitmer far-right] will pull up other examples.
Some examples from their social media: https://twitter.com/josh_emerson/status/1314234661820825609 (a thread about several)
My guess is that the person you’re referring to as a “self-described anarchist who has posted anti-Trump messages on social media” is Brandon Caserta, who seems to be associated with the Boogaloo Boys, a right-wing anti-government group.
There ain’t much wit behind the Mer.
While Whitmer was blaming Trump, the Detroit News was running a story on the alleged kidnapper was hating on Trump. These individuals were anarchists:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/09/alleged-kidnapper-posted-anti-trump-video/5940296002/