FBI arrest 6 men in a militia plot to kidnap Michigan governor who also wanted to kill police officers.

hanimmal said:

I was thinking it looks like she is giving the dude in the middle a tug.

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Robert Tesh, 34, of Detroit was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and $1,898 in fees after making “credible" death threats against Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Tesh pleaded guilty but mentally ill in August to the Wayne County Circuit Court. As part of his probation, Tesh must participate in mental health treatment where a psychiatric report will be required to be filed every three months until the completion of his probation. Tesh also will not be allowed to own or possess any firearms or weapons. When he was initially charged, he could have faced up to 20 years in prison.

Tesh made the threat on April 14, 2020, while speaking to an acquaintance on a social media messenger app. He was arrested at his home the same day he made the threats and was charged with false report or threat of terrorism.

Nessel submitted on Tuesday a statement to the court, writing “as a concerned citizen, and a loving wife and mother." She said the threats made like those made by Tesh have “deeply impacted" her family and left them in a state of fear.

“This is not how it should be," Nessel said. “The deluge of threats that public officials have faced in the last year is unprecedented and unacceptable. No public official should be frightened of doing their job. I have always supported the public's right to disagree and voice that disagreement, it's our First Amendment right as Americans. But when that disagreement crosses the line into a politically-motivated threat of violence, it must be prosecuted."

Nessel went on to say that threats like those made by Tesh are driving candidates away from public office and rejects that receiving threats should be a common part of public service work.

“As a public official, I receive death threats on a regular basis," Nessel said. “However, I fiercely reject the idea that those threats are 'just part of the job' of being a public official. No one goes into public service envisioning that death threats will become part of their daily life, and no one should."

A judge also has set a March 8 trial date for five men implicated in a right-wing plot to allegedly kidnap and kill Whitmer over her COVID-19 restrictions. The five pleaded not guilty. A sixth man involved, Ty Garbin, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to over six years in prison and is set to be a witness in the case.



Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: [email protected]. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.

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Republicans in swing-state Michigan are quietly working to oust local elections officials who voted to certify President Joe Biden's victory — and replace them with pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theorists.

"The trend focuses on four-member county canvassing boards, the bipartisan panels in charge of verifying records and importantly, certifying results," the Detroit News reported Monday. "Democrats are concerned that the new canvassers, spurred by former President Donald Trump, will refuse to approve future results or use their positions to interfere in the process."

Mark Brewer, an elections attorney and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, called the situation "unprecedented" and "dangerous."

"This deliberate attempt by the Republican Party to subvert future Michigan elections by putting big lie supporters on county canvassing boards should alarm everyone who believes in democracy," Brewer told the Detroit News.

Chris Thomas, Michigan's former longtime elections director, said having "fringe" people on the canvassing boards will create a "mess" if counties refuse to certify election results.

Each county in Michigan has a four-member canvassing board made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, nominated by party officials and confirmed by local commissioners. Every two years, one canvassing board member from each party begins a new four-year term.

Canvassing board members typically serve for long periods and act in a non-partisan fashion, but this year GOP officials have nominated new members in eight of Michigan's 11 largest counties — including four in which the current member wanted to be re-nominated but wasn't, according to the Detroit News.

One of the new GOP nominees in Wayne County, Michigan's largest, is Hima Kolanagireddy, who was presented as a witness by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani last year as he pressed state lawmakers to overturn Biden's victory.

Kolanagireddy has been nominated to replace Monica Palmer, who initially declined to certify the 2020 election results but later reversed course, as the state narrowly averted a crisis.

"I think this is clearly an attempt (to ensure) that I don't remain on the Board of Canvassers because I did eventually certify the election," Palmer said.

In Antrim County, Republicans have nominated Victoria Bishop, who moderated an event with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in June. And in Macomb County, Michigan's third-largest, GOP officials have nominated Nancy Tiseo, who tweeted in November that Trump should use "military tribunals" to investigate his false claims of widespread election fraud.

Elsewhere, Ingraham County Clerk Barb Byrum blasted Republicans for not re-nominating Anthony Markwort even though he did his job well and wanted to continue serving.

"It is very disappointing that the Republican chair has opted to go with conspiracy believers and election problem makers against individuals who are willing to work with a critical eye on certifying the election," said Byrum, a Democrat.

Genesee County Clerk John Gleason, also a Democrat, said Republicans have proposed "wackos" to replace Michelle Voorheis, who served for 13 years but was not re-nominated after she made statements on social media defending the outcome of the 2020 election.

GOP officials in Genesee County have instead nominated Kathy Keller, who recently called county commissioners "Nazis."

"Whatever nut case they want to put on there, we'll put them on there," Gleason said.

Read more here.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.rawstory.com/detroit-man-sentenced-to-5-years-probation-for-death-threats-to-gretchen-whitmer-and-dana-nessel/
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Roger A. Shrubber said:

they should have nailed that fucker to the wall, as an example...now more fucking lunatics are going to think "i can do this kind of thing and get a slap on the wrist"....which leads to them thinking "i bet i could actually kill them and i'd just get a few years in a psych ward and come out a hero to the party"...no fucking probation for making death threats, hard time, either in a nasty shitty county jail picking up trash on the side of the road in the hot sun every day, or in a mental institution where you don't get out till they say you can get out...

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Although Michigan is one of the 2016 Trump states that Joe Biden flipped in 2020, it is also a state that has had a disturbing amount of activity from far-right militia extremists — including those who planned to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year, subject her to a "trial" for treason and execute her if found guilty. Journalists David D. Kirkpatrick and Mike McIntire, in an article published by the New York Times on February 8, takes an in-depth look at the extremism of Michigan's paramilitary militias and their relationship to the Michigan GOP — a relationship that helped pave the way for the violence of January 6.

"Michigan has a long tradition of tolerating self-described private militias, which are unusually common in the state," Kirkpatrick and McIntire explain. "But it is also a critical electoral battleground that draws close attention from top party leaders, and the Republican alliance with paramilitary groups shows how difficult it may be for the national party to extricate itself from the shadow of the former president and his appeal to this aggressive segment of its base."

In April 2020, the Times reporters recall, armed militia members protested coronavirus restrictions in Lansing, Michigan and stormed the Michigan Capitol Building. According to Kirkpatrick and McIntire, "That intrusion into the Statehouse now looks like a portent of the assault halfway across the country months later at the United States Capitol."

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin has said that in light of the events in Michigan in 2020, "We knew there would be violence" on January 6. When Republican politicians in Michigan condone militia members carrying assault rifles during their protests, Slotkin warned, that "normalizes violence."

Kirkpatrick and McIntire report, "Six Trump supporters from Michigan have been arrested in connection with the storming of the (U.S.) Capitol. One, a former marine accused of beating a Capitol Police officer with a hockey stick, had previously joined armed militiamen in a protest organized by Michigan Republicans to try to disrupt ballot counting in Detroit. The chief organizer of that protest, Meshawn Maddock, on Saturday was elected co-chair of the state Republican Party — one of four diehard Trump loyalists who won top posts."

However, Maddock has condemned the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and told the Times, "When it comes to militias or the Proud Boys, I have no connection whatsoever to them."

Prominent Michigan Republicans who have allied themselves with militias, according to Kirkpatrick and McIntire, include Ryan Kelley — who has announced a gubernatorial run — and Londa Gatt, a Proud Boys supporter who has described the extremist group as "true patriots." Jeff Timmer, a former director of the Michigan GOP and a conservative critic of former President Donald Trump, is troubled by the alliance between militia members and Michigan Republicans and told the Times, "It is like the Republican Party has its own domestic army."

JoEllen Vinyard, a professor at Eastern Michigan University and expert on political extremism, is also troubled by the Michigan GOP's relationship with militia groups and told the Times, "I think there is a fair amount of sympathy in the Republican Party for these people that wasn't there in the past. It's a much closer relationship now."

Maddock's causes have ranged from fighting coronavirus restrictions in Michigan to trying to help Trump overturn the presidential election results in that state. And although she distanced herself from militias and the Proud Boys in her statement to the Times, she has remained a devout Trump supporter.

"When attempts to stop the counting failed, Ms. Maddock, in December, led 16 Republican electors trying to push into the Michigan Capitol to disrupt the casting of Democratic votes in the Electoral College," Kirkpatrick and McIntire note. "During a 'Stop the Steal' news conference in Washington the next day, she vowed to 'keep fighting.' Marching toward the (U.S.) Capitol on January 6, she tweeted that the throngs were 'the most incredible crowd and sea of people I have ever walked with.'"

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hanimmal said:

https://www.rawstory.com/michigan-gop/View attachment 5007867

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mooray said:

I think we're going to need a taste of actual instability, not running out of tp or having our southwest flights cancelled, but actual instability, for them to catch a glimpse of the fact that they don't actually want what they're asking for.

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mooray said:

Orrrrrrr, how about a literal rise of the sea just to take florida out of the equation..?

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Although Michigan is one of the 2016 Trump states that Joe Biden flipped in 2020, it is also a state that has had a disturbing amount of activity from far-right militia extremists — including those who planned to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year, subject her to a "trial" for treason and execute her if found guilty. Journalists David D. Kirkpatrick and Mike McIntire, in an article published by the New York Times on February 8, takes an in-depth look at the extremism of Michigan's paramilitary militias and their relationship to the Michigan GOP — a relationship that helped pave the way for the violence of January 6.

"Michigan has a long tradition of tolerating self-described private militias, which are unusually common in the state," Kirkpatrick and McIntire explain. "But it is also a critical electoral battleground that draws close attention from top party leaders, and the Republican alliance with paramilitary groups shows how difficult it may be for the national party to extricate itself from the shadow of the former president and his appeal to this aggressive segment of its base."

In April 2020, the Times reporters recall, armed militia members protested coronavirus restrictions in Lansing, Michigan and stormed the Michigan Capitol Building. According to Kirkpatrick and McIntire, "That intrusion into the Statehouse now looks like a portent of the assault halfway across the country months later at the United States Capitol."

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin has said that in light of the events in Michigan in 2020, "We knew there would be violence" on January 6. When Republican politicians in Michigan condone militia members carrying assault rifles during their protests, Slotkin warned, that "normalizes violence."

Kirkpatrick and McIntire report, "Six Trump supporters from Michigan have been arrested in connection with the storming of the (U.S.) Capitol. One, a former marine accused of beating a Capitol Police officer with a hockey stick, had previously joined armed militiamen in a protest organized by Michigan Republicans to try to disrupt ballot counting in Detroit. The chief organizer of that protest, Meshawn Maddock, on Saturday was elected co-chair of the state Republican Party — one of four diehard Trump loyalists who won top posts."

However, Maddock has condemned the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building and told the Times, "When it comes to militias or the Proud Boys, I have no connection whatsoever to them."

Prominent Michigan Republicans who have allied themselves with militias, according to Kirkpatrick and McIntire, include Ryan Kelley — who has announced a gubernatorial run — and Londa Gatt, a Proud Boys supporter who has described the extremist group as "true patriots." Jeff Timmer, a former director of the Michigan GOP and a conservative critic of former President Donald Trump, is troubled by the alliance between militia members and Michigan Republicans and told the Times, "It is like the Republican Party has its own domestic army."

JoEllen Vinyard, a professor at Eastern Michigan University and expert on political extremism, is also troubled by the Michigan GOP's relationship with militia groups and told the Times, "I think there is a fair amount of sympathy in the Republican Party for these people that wasn't there in the past. It's a much closer relationship now."

Maddock's causes have ranged from fighting coronavirus restrictions in Michigan to trying to help Trump overturn the presidential election results in that state. And although she distanced herself from militias and the Proud Boys in her statement to the Times, she has remained a devout Trump supporter.

"When attempts to stop the counting failed, Ms. Maddock, in December, led 16 Republican electors trying to push into the Michigan Capitol to disrupt the casting of Democratic votes in the Electoral College," Kirkpatrick and McIntire note. "During a 'Stop the Steal' news conference in Washington the next day, she vowed to 'keep fighting.' Marching toward the (U.S.) Capitol on January 6, she tweeted that the throngs were 'the most incredible crowd and sea of people I have ever walked with.'"

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hanimmal said:

https://www.rawstory.com/michigan-gop/View attachment 5030682

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

they need to start crucifying these fucks...i'm just so sick of the stupidest segment of the population having the loudest voice, because no one smacks the shit out of them like the evil little children they are...smack the fuck out of them and shove their noses in the corner for a good long time...if they whine about it, smack the little fuckers harder

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Lucky Luke said:

Get rid of Electoral colleges and then they have limited political power.

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Roger A. Shrubber said:

one of the few things you've said i agree with

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A second man accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will plead guilty and testify against the other alleged conspirators, according a new court filing.

Kaleb Franks, of Waterford Township, will agree to plead guilty to kidnapping conspiracy, which carries a possible life term in prison, and testify for the government at a trial set to start March 8, reported The Detroit News.

READ: Trump White House docs had to be retrieved from Mar-a-Lago

The 27-year-old Franks was scheduled to stand trial in Grand Rapids with four others charged in the plot, while a sixth man, Ty Garbin, pleaded guilty last year and will serve a six-year prison term in exchange for his testimony.

Prosecutors say evidence shows Franks was angry at pandemic safety measures imposed by Whitmer last year and became involved with extremist groups that opposed those rules.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Prosecutors marked the start of the domestic terrorism trial of four men accused of scheming to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday by cataloging the alleged acts of angry men who built bombs, hatched violent plans and amassed an arsenal in hopes of sparking a nationwide wave of terror targeting politicians.

Opening statements started 17 months after FBI agents said they thwarted a domestic terrorism attack that involved kidnapping Whitmer and using bombs during the attack. The accused plotters are a mix of self-described patriots and militia members who prosecutors say were angered by restrictions imposed during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plot was hatched in April 2020, weeks into the pandemic and unfolded over the next six months across encrypted chat rooms, in militia meetings in Ohio, while building bombs in rural Wisconsin and at a secluded wooded training camp in northern Michigan where plotters practiced with an arsenal of weapons and launched surveillance of the governor's cottage, according to the government.

"They were going to break into the governor's home, kidnap her at gunpoint, hogtie her and take her away," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler told jurors. “This was not just talk."

Four men are standing trial on kidnapping conspiracy charges in a case that has focused national attention on violent extremism in Michigan and raised questions about whether that team of FBI agents and informants orchestrated the conspiracy and entrapped the alleged plotters.

The case is high stakes — defendants Adam Fox of Potterville, Barry Croft of Delaware, Daniel Harris of Lake Orion and Brandon Caserta of Canton Township face up to life in prison if convicted of kidnapping conspiracy — and a high-profile test of federal laws being used to punish extremist behavior that erupted nationally in 2020 and 2021 around the presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic.

“They agreed, planned, trained and were ready to break into a woman’s home while she slept with her family in the middle of the night, with violence, at gunpoint, to tie her up, take her from that home, shoot, blow up and kill anybody who got in their way,” Kessler told jurors. “And in their own words: create a war zone in Michigan.”

The government's opening statements launched what is expected to be a high-profile, multimedia trial featuring secret audio and video recordings, online chats testimony from FBI agents, at least one informant and two convicted plotters.

Six members of the alleged conspiracy were charged in federal court with kidnapping conspiracy in October 2020. Eight others are facing charges in related cases pending in state courts.

Prosecutors in October 2020 said FBI agents thwarted a plot to bomb a bridge near Whitmer's vacation home, kidnap the governor and have her stand trial for treason. The group also mulled abandoning Whitmer — who prosecutors say was referred to as a "tyrant b----" by alleged ringleader Fox — in the middle of Lake Michigan as punishment for her leadership during the pandemic.

Croft helped launch the conspiracy in April 2020 in a recorded call to action, the prosecutors said Wednesday.

“All it’s going to take is one state to burn out and hang its governor and then those dominos will start to fall,” Croft wrote.

Fox accepted that call to action, Kessler told jurors.

“They began plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan,” Kessler said. “He said the whole point is ‘we’re sending a message to them that if we can get her, we can get you.’”

Whitmer, a Democrat, was the main target among a group that also discussed attacking Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, along with a second Democrat, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, according to prosecutors.

"I say we hang everything currently governing us, they're all guilty!!!," Croft wrote in one Facebook post, which also included an image of then-President Donald Trump. "Wanna hang this mf'er too..."

Six men were charged in federal court while eight others were charged in state court, where their cases are pending. Two convicted plotters originally charged in federal court — Ty Garbin of Hartland Township and Kaleb Franks of Waterford Township — are expected to testify for the government that the four defendants were not entrapped by the government.

Defense lawyers have said there was no plot and that their clients were merely using coarse language to voice complaints about the government's response to the pandemic.

“Adam Fox did not commit a crime in this case,” his lawyer, Christopher Gibbon, told jurors Wednesday. “There was no plan. There was no conspiracy.

"There was a lot of talk."

Fox was not a leader of a militia or ringleader of a kidnapping plot.

“This is all parlor tricks,” Gibbons said.

He was broke. Unemployed. One rung above homeless, living in the basement of a Grand Rapids vacuum shop.

“If he wanted to brush his teeth, he had to go to a Mexican restaurant,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons downplayed the significance of a June 2020 meeting in Dublin, Ohio, that prosecutors portrayed as an inciting moment when the kidnap plot crystallized around anger over COVID-19 restrictions.

“There was no agreement,” Gibbons told jurors. “There was a lot of anti-government talk. Who wasn’t upset about COVID and COVID restrictions? But there was no conspiracy.”

Gibbons blamed FBI informant Stephen Robeson for propping Fox up as the leader of the so-called Michigan Three Percent Patriot Militia.

“There’s nobody in it,” Gibbons said. “It’s just Adam.”

Until July 2020.

One member joined, Gibbons said.

An FBI informant.

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An Ohio woman is facing charges after she allegedly sent voicemail messages threatening to kill two Michigan state lawmakers, Click on Detroit reports.

Sandra Bachman, 58, targeted state Reps. Cynthia Johnson and Sarah Anthony, both of whom are Democrats.

“(You) need to cancel that bill against the vets, you little traitor, and, um, you won’t see the bullet coming, let me tell you that. So, stop this s--- and you’re fired. We’ll be coming to Michigan soon to remove you from your post," she said in a May, 2021 voicemail to Anthony.

In June of the same year, she sent a voicemail to Johnson, saying, "Well, baby-doll, n***a lip b***h, monkey, we are going to get you. You will die. You are one of the worst offenders. We actually have a tier too, in like points for how much you are worth once we kill you.... You're going to die and I'm happy about it. The whole world will be rejoicing, just know that. Sleep well."

Anthony and Johnson are both African American.

Bachman has been charged with one count of false report or threat of terrorism, one count of ethnic intimidation and two counts of malicious use of telecommunications services. If convicted on all counts, she faces over 20 years in prison.

Her arraignment before a judge is scheduled for March 31.

"This rise in threats against elected officials will not be tolerated," Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a news release. "Those who think hiding behind a phone or keyboard will prevent them from facing criminal charges are severely mistaken. I appreciate the work done across state lines to bring accountability in this case."

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