Three Michigan Kidnapping Suspects Said They Were Entrapped. A Judge Said They Have To Stand Trial Anyway.

The men lost their bid to have the case thrown out of Michigan state court.

The men are accused of providing material support to terrorism, gang membership, and felony firearm possession. The conditions for a conspiracy to hatch were created when they were entrapped by the FBI and forced to train with people they wouldn't have met.

Judge Thomas D. Wilson of Jackson County Circuit Court denied the motion to dismiss the case because he couldn't see how the government pressured any of the individuals.

Their defense is similar to that of the defendants in the parallel federal case, which include kidnapping conspiracy and weapons of mass destruction charges, crimes that carry maximum penalties of life in prison. A federal judge denied a motion to throw out the case because the defendants failed to carry their burden of proof.

Two weeks after that ruling, one of the federal defendants, Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government. Federal prosecutors have said that when the trial begins on March 8, the remaining defendants will testify that they were not entrapped by law enforcement.

There are additional defendants in Michigan. The case has not had an evidentiary hearing in over a year.

Attorneys for Bellar, Musico, and Morrison focused on the confidential source known as Dan, an Army veteran who joined the Wolverine Watchmen in March 2020. He rose to become the group's second in command after the FBI asked him to secretly report on its activities.

The attorney for Musico said in court that federal agents were infiltrating a protected group. They were letting things happen and not sitting back.

The Michigan attorney general's office said that the defendants were prone to commit crimes of political violence.

Wilson agreed with the prosecution that the FBI's use of confidential sources is not entrapment.

Hank Impola, one of two FBI agents who handled Dan, testified that Stephen Robeson, an FBI confidential source, helped set up Facebook pages in at least seven states for the anti-government group known as the Three Percenters.

In the past year, Robeson has been charged with two crimes and has not testified. Last month, federal prosecutors dubbed him a double agent who undermined the investigation and was not a reliable witness.

The government says Dan has no criminal record.

The court turned off the video feed and asked journalists to refrain from taking photos during Dan's testimony on Monday. Dan claimed that after a multistate meeting of the minds in Ohio in June 2020, focus shifted to specific actions in either Virginia or Michigan that would potentially kick off a civil war.

The state of Michigan was identified as the first target for an act of political violence by mid-July, and a smaller group of people began making plans to kidnap the governor. Dan said the idea was a domino effect. We take our state and others will do the same.

Musico and Morrison are accused of providing support to terrorism because they hosted training sessions and meetings where some of the smaller group's plans took root. The same thing happened to Bellar, who left Michigan permanently in July. His attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, took pains to question how he could have provided material support to a plan that hadn't even been hatched.

Wilson's ruling doesn't prevent the defendants from raising the question of entrapment at trial, which prosecutors said on Tuesday could last for several weeks.