Trial in Michigan Gov. Whitmer plot focuses on entrapment
FILE - In an Oct. 8, 2020 file photo, provided by the Michigan Office of the Governor, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich. Opening statements are Wednesday, March 8, 2022, for the trial of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Whitmer. Prosecutors say the men conspired to kidnap the Democratic governor in 2020 because they were angry about COVID-19 restrictions she imposed .GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.
Lawyers initially tiptoed around whether agents induced Fox, Croft, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta to commit crimes they wouldn’t have contemplated on their own, known as entrapment. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker then took the unusual step of allowing them to specifically address an entrapment defense.
Roth said the evidence would prove their desire to commit violence regardless of anything the informants did or suggested.Prosecutors played a Facebook video of Fox intermittently laughing and cursing the government while waving two AR-style assault rifles at a camera. Harris' attorney, Julia Kelly, said the former Marine was attracted to an FBI informant called “Big Dan” because he presented himself as a gun training instructor.