Coordinated demolitions, snipers taking out armed guards, and a getaway with two helicopters were some of the wild details of an alleged conspiracy by the Wolverine Watchmen militia to kidnap Michigan’s governor in the summer of 2020.
But according to the Watchmen standing trial for this alleged plot, these plans were hatched after they were drunk and high—sometimes at the hand of an FBI informant.
Defense attorney Josh Blanchard made this argument during his opening statement on March 9, responding to multiple recordings of his client, Barry Croft, calling for violence against law enforcement, government officials, and civilians.
“I might kill a cop,” Croft allegedly said at a June 6, 2020, meeting of Three Percenters in Dublin, Ohio. “You can tell the feds Barry Croft did it.”
These quotes and others were captured by former FBI informant Steve Robeson, who organized the Dublin meeting. Blanchard told the jury on March 9 that Robeson supplied cannabis to Croft before he made his calls for violence.
“They [the FBI] ignored that their snitch was rolling blunts with [Croft],” Blanchard said.
The use of drugs and alcohol by the defendants has been highlighted by other attorneys, too.
Julia Kelly, who’s representing Daniel Harris, noted that Robeson’s wife can be heard laughing at Croft in the same recording of the Dublin meeting—asking Croft if he’s “too high to stand.”
Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons, who is representing Adam Fox, also noted that “copious amounts of marijuana was smoked” at a July 2020 barbecue where his client allegedly spoke of capturing Whitmer.
The informant recording Fox at that barbecue—a man who’s only been identified in court as “Mark”—only had one Bud Light while Fox and other people at the party imbibed heavily, Gibbons said.
FBI informants supplying targets of investigations with drugs is a clear-cut violation of the Attorney General’s Guidelines Regarding The Use of Confidential Informants, former FBI agent Marc Ruskin told The Epoch Times.
By Ken Silva
