Plot To Kidnap And Kill Governor — Elie Honig - Domestic Terroism
(CNN)As a prosecutor for more than 14 years, I've seen my share of criminal complaints charging every crime in the book, from murder on down. But Thursday's FBI complaint detailing the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and overthrow several state governments is uniquely chilling: It suggests that the nation has gone down a dark new road. Six men face federal charges and seven other men face state charges in the case.
A few things jump out. First, this alleged plot, detailed by federal and state officials, was very plausible. It's frightening to contemplate, but the alleged kidnapping scheme could well have succeeded had it not been intercepted by law enforcement authorities.
This was not some inflated, FBI-generated sting and it went well beyond idle, fantastical chatter or pumped-up bluster. According to the complaint's allegations, the charged defendants held actual "field training exercises;" created and detonated a test explosive device; possessed and trained with firearms; purchased a taser for use in the attack; and conducted coordinated surveillance, during the daytime and at night, of Whitmer's vacation home.
Any sane person shudders to think what they might have done if not caught. One of the defendants allegedly said, "Snatch and grab man. Grab the f***** governor. Just grab the b****. Because at that point, we do that dude -- it's over."
Another defendant suggested, according to the complaint, "Have one person go to her house. Knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her." These are the alleged statements of people who are not just angry, but radicalized, militarized, and willing and able to take action.
That leads to another disturbing element of the alleged plot. The defendants' sole motivation here was political. They did not, apparently, seek money or the kind of retribution seen in many murders and murder conspiracies when the target is personally known to the defendants. Rather, they appeared to targeted Whitmer purely for extremist political purposes.
Several of the defendants allegedly discussed murdering a sitting governor or attacking the statehouse to make a political statement. Driving the point home, one of the conspirators specifically spoke of completing their attack before Election Day, officials said.
It's impossible to ignore the broader political atmosphere here. In the past few months, President Donald Trump repeatedly has declined to unequivocally condemn white supremacist groups, including during the recent presidential debate (though several days later he told Fox's Sean Hannity "I condemn all white supremacists"). And last Spring, he tweeted, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN," in support of protesters -- some heavily armed -- that had rallied at the state Capitol against Whitmer's Covid-based restrictions.
The details of the plot also speak to the potential dangers of online radicalization. Several of the group members met and communicated over Facebook, officials said. And, as the alleged plot developed, the defendants corresponded with one another using encrypted platforms, according to the complaint -- their steps to avoid law enforcement detection further suggesting they had real intent to carry out the plan.
The FBI has warned that extremist groups increasingly are taking to the internet and social media to spread their message and to recruit. The alleged plot provides a tangible example of this phenomenon in action.
This case should put to rest any controversy about whether the threat of far-right extremism is real and pervasive. This case demonstrates that there are people in the United States who are allegedly eager enough to risk their own lives and liberty to carry out a coordinated attack on a public figure purely for political purposes. And our modern technology and easy access to weapons and explosives makes it all too easy for those who are committed enough to turn plans into action.
The FBI recently issued a new warning about the growing threat posed by right-wing extremist groups. Today’s complaint proves, in stark and chilling detail, that the FBI was absolutely correct to sound the alarm.
Washington (CNN)Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday that attacks lobbed at her by President Donald Trump's reelection campaign after authorities announced they foiled a plot to kidnap her "tells you everything you need to know" about the difference between the President and Joe Biden.
A federal criminal complaint unveiled earlier Thursday said that 13 people were arrested in the kidnapping scheme aimed at Whitmer, a Democrat. The alleged plan included plans to overthrow several state governments that the suspects "believe are violating the US Constitution," including the government of Michigan and Whitmer.
Following the announcement by federal and state officials, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller lambasted the governor, who had tied Trump's rhetoric to the plot in earlier televised remarks, saying she "wakes up everyday with such hatred in her heart" for Trump.
"You know, the fact that after a plot to kidnap and to kill me, this is what they come out with. They start attacking me, as opposed to what good, decent people would do is to check in and say, 'Are you OK?' -- which is what (Democratic presidential nominee) Joe Biden did," Whitmer told CNN's Erin Burnett on "Out Front."
"I think that tells you everything that's at stake in this election," she said. "It tells you everything you need to know about the character of the two people on this ballot that we have to choose from in a few weeks."
Trump slammed Whitmer later Thursday in a series of tweets, falsely claiming she called him a "White Supremacist" in her remarks, complaining that she did not thank him and saying she's doing a "terrible job" at governing.
"Governor Whitmer of Michigan has done a terrible job. She locked down her state for everyone, except her husband’s boating activities," he wrote, urging her in another tweet to " Open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches!"
Whitmer said that she's asked the White House and Republicans in her state to decrease the level of inflammatory rhetoric they put out that she said helped spark the alleged plot.
"We know every time that this White House identifies me or takes a shot at me, we see an increase in rhetoric online, violent rhetoric, and so there's always a connection and certainly it's something that we've been watching. But this took it to a whole new level," the governor said.
She continued: "I have raised this very issue with this White House and asked them to bring the heat down. I have asked leaders, Republican leaders in the state -- let's bring the heat down."
Whitmer has been the target of multiple death threats in light of her coronavirus response efforts and decision to issue stay-at-home orders. In April, protesters and militia gathered at the state Capitol for a rally, gridlocking the streets to call for Whitmer to lift her stay-at-home order. Trump and other Republicans had repeatedly attacked her for the measures, with the President saying on Twitter earlier this year that residents should "liberate" the state.
CNN's Christina Carrega, Veronica Stracqualursi and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.
News Alert: T-RUMP Says He Won’t Participate In Next Debate If It Is Virtual
President Donald T-RUMP said Thursday that he will not participate in the second presidential debate with Joe Biden after the Commission on Presidential Debates said the event will be held virtually in the wake of the President’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis.. ”I am not going to do a virtual debate,” T-RUMP said on Fox Business. “ am not going to waste my time on a virtual debate.” Breathing for you is a waste of time for the rest of us….
News Alert: Second Presidential Debate Will Be Virtual, Commission Says…
The second presidential debate will be held virtually, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday morning in the wake of President Donald Trump’s positive test for coronavirus. The second debate is scheduled to be held on October 15. T-RUMP tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Have a nice day…T-RUMP.
Vp Debate Cooler But Pence Brought His BS Game
Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic VP candidate Sen. Kamala Harris kept it relatively cool during last night’s debate in Salt Lake City. The night ultimately centered around President T-RUMP with Harris offering blistering criticism of his handling of the pandemic and Pence, who heads up the White House’s coronavirus task force, defending him at every turn.
Harris is known for her pointed, no-nonsense dialogue, but she played it mostly safe last night by letting certain points go without repeated challenges. Both Pence and Harris were essentially mum on issues of presidential health and transfers of power. Harris avoided a question about a potential progressive effort to add seats to the Supreme Court, and Pence offered irrelevant answers to questions about the pandemic, the Supreme Court and health care.
Trump Reverses Course, Wants Stimulus Now
Now Trump says stimulus negotiations are back on. But they aren't -- After a market tremor and a lot of people wondering what the heck he was doing, President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday that negotiations between Republicans and Democrats for a massive new pandemic stimulus were off until Election Day.
Then, completely contradicting that, he called for Democrats to immediately pass bills. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the administration to look at what House Democrats have already passed — and the Senate has ignored — to rescue the airline industry…
The President’s Twitter account sent markets on a roller coaster ride, with a sharp drop at Tuesday's close, only to be followed by a tangible pre-market bump. Aides on Capitol Hill similarly had no idea where, exactly, the President sits on stimulus at this moment. But all agree that actual substantive bipartisan negotiations, which were already in a tenuous place, are done for the moment.
Bottom line: The market, based on Wednesday morning, has no idea what it's doing. The reality, contrary to Trump's backtrack tweets, is that bipartisan stimulus talks are dead. There may be fits and starts of efforts to move piecemeal legislation in the next few weeks, but Democratic leaders have rejected that pathway repeatedly.
What it all means: For millions of unemployed or underemployed people, for small business owners barely hanging on, for airlines cutting tens of thousands of jobs, for a decimated service sector, federal help is not coming any time soon.
Needed Investigation Followed By Castration
Border wall: The New York Times report about then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein telling US attorneys to separate children from their families at the border is something that should be getting a lot more attention.
More Tax Problems For T-Rump
- T-RUMP taxes: The New York attorney general’s subpoena for Trump’s financial records is headed back to the Supreme Court after a blow to his argument in court.
- News Alert: Federal appeals court rules T-RUMP can’t block New York subpoena for his tax returns
- The Manhattan district attorney can obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday, dealing the President another setback in his effort to shield his tax returns from investigators but the case is likely to head to the Supreme Court.
- The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals broadly rejected Trump's arguments that the subpoena for his records was overly broad and issued in bad faith.
Someone Who Needs To Be Removed ASAP
GREGG ABBOTT - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott framed his order limiting counties to only one location for collecting completed mail ballots as a way to enhance “ballot security protocol” and ensure COVID-19 safety measures. We need to call it what it is:
VOTER SUPPRESSION CLEAR AND SIMPLE
There is, after all, no evidence of widespread mail-in ballot fraud; voting experts have repeatedly debunked that claim, as did FBI Director Christopher Wray to Congress on Sept. 24. And there is no proof that shutting down drop-off sites will do anything to protect the integrity of the election. If anything, the Harris County collection sites make voting even more secure, as they require voters to deliver their own ballots, sign in, speak with an assistant clerk and provide identification.
Abbott’s order will only make it harder and riskier for vulnerable Texans — the elderly and those with underlying health conditions — to cast ballots amid the pandemic.
In Harris County, which has more than 4.7 million residents, 11 drop-off sites located at county clerk annex offices had to be shuttered under the governor’s order, which went into effect Friday, the same day voting rights groups sued in federal court to reverse it.
If allowed to stand, it will force voters from all corners of the sprawling 1,777-square-mile jurisdiction to travel to the county election headquarters at NRG Arena if they want to hand deliver their mail ballots.
In a statement, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins accused Abbott of reneging on a July 27 proclamation designed to facilitate voting during the pandemic. “Our office is more than willing to accommodate poll watchers at mail ballot drop-off locations,” Hollins said. “But to force hundreds of thousands of seniors and voters with disabilities to use a single drop-off location in a county that stretches over nearly 2,000 square miles is prejudicial and dangerous.”
More than 200,000 mail ballots have already been sent to Harris County voters, mostly to residents over the age of 65. Closing the drop-off sites will only sow confusion — and could discourage many voters from even casting a ballot.
That seems to be part of the Republican strategy for winning elections, which in recent years has ranged from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s efforts to stop Harris County from sending mail ballot applications to the county’s 2.4 million registered voters to lawsuits challenging voting laws in Pennsylvania and more than a half-dozen other states filed by the Republican National Committee, the T-RUMP campaign and other GOP groups.
Those efforts follow years of effort to make it harder, rather than easier to vote: the gutting of Section V of the Voting Rights Act and subsequent refusal to amend it, the widespread passage of voter ID laws, and relentless pressure against online, mail-in and early voting innovations.
In this case, Abbott’s rationale for ordering the drop-off locations closed is so thin as to be almost laughable. On Wednesday, Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins told the state Supreme Court that his July 27 proclamation allowed voters to drop off mail ballots any time before election day and that state law permitted county clerks to designate multiple locations to do so.
This is one mistake that Abbott shouldn’t wait for the courts to make right. He should rescind his order immediately — and pledge to do everything he can to make it easier for everyone to vote. That’s what common decency and the U.S. Constitution require.
No one, not even Abbott, is above that. If not someone shoot him… as a traitor to the country and peoples right to vote…these bastards that play politics have had a free corrupt reign under T-RUMP and have become incredibly rich during a pandemic, screwed a lot of good people into poverty, enough, bullsh*t, lets rid the NRA of their money, get rid of their gerrymandering and other shenanigans and a few good hanging televised should get the two parties to work together for the real bosses the people.
THE SENATE F*CK UP
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Saturday that he was canceling Senate votes for the next two weeks after three senators tested positive for the COVID-19 and others said they would quarantine as a precaution. But he made clear that the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett will move ahead, starting on Oct. 12.
“Since May, the Judiciary Committee has operated flawlessly through a hybrid method that has seen some Senators appear physically at its hearings while other members have participated virtually,” McConnell said in a statement. “The Committee has utilized this format successfully for many months while protecting the health and safety of all involved. Certainly all Republican members of the committee will participate in these important hearings.”
“If It’s too dangerous to have the Senate in session it is also too dangerous for committee hearings to continue. Leader McConnell and Chairman Lindsey Graham’s monomaniacal drive to confirm Judge Barrett at all costs needlessly threatens the health and safety of Senators, staff, and all those who work in the Capitol complex,” Schumer said in a statement.