The Government Says A Key Informant In The Michigan Kidnapping Case Was A "Double Agent"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/fbi-informant-michigan-double-agent

Federal prosecutors say a key FBI informant in the alleged plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan was a “double agent” who was “working against the interests of the government” by trying to destroy evidence and prevent arrests.

The confidential informant, Stephen Robeson, played a central role in the investigation that led to the arrest of 14 men for allegedly participating in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020. At the direction of his FBI handlers, Robeson reached out to potential targets, organized meetings, and paid travel expenses for people to attend such events.

Now the government appears to be disowning its own operative, saying he deceived the FBI and at times actively aided targets of the investigation.

Defendants have claimed that it was overzealous government informants, including Robeson, who hatched the alleged plot to kidnap a sitting governor. The defendants have denounced the case as entrapment and an example of “egregious overreaching,” claiming they never would have contemplated the purported crimes without the informants’ involvement.

*snip*

[Hekate]

1. KnR

[dweller]

2. At some point when he's referred to as 'the goat'

I don’t think it will mean ‘greatest of all time’
😐



✌🏻

[crickets]

3. This has been simmering for a while. What is going on at the FBI?

The FBI Investigation Into The Alleged Plot To Kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Has Gotten Very Complicated

The case seemed like a lock — until an informant and one FBI agent were charged with crimes, another was accused of perjury, and a third was found promoting a private security firm. And that wasn’t all.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/fbi-michigan-kidnap-whitmer

A continuing BuzzFeed News investigation reveals new information about how [FBI agent] Chambers' business, along with an array of issues involving other FBI agents and informants, has bedeviled the prosecution. Those issues may well affect the course of the trial. But beyond the integrity of the case, the problems are serious and widespread enough to call into question tactics the FBI has relied on for decades — and to test the public’s trust in the bureau overall. [snip]

Meanwhile, the challenges facing the prosecution mount: A second FBI agent, who had served as the case’s public face, was charged with beating his wife when they returned home from a swingers party. He was fired soon thereafter. A third agent was accused of perjury. A state prosecutor in a related case was reassigned and then retired in the face of an audit into his prior use of informants. [snip]

The FBI has long relied on undercover agents and confidential informants — civilians, some of them paid for their service — to infiltrate closed groups, from the Black Panthers to the Weather Underground. Officially, these agents and informants are supposed to blend in and report back, not to directly steer the group’s actions — and certainly not to push them to commit crimes the groups would not otherwise have contemplated. But over the years, this approach has prompted many questions about the line between effective casework and entrapment. This was especially so during the years after 9/11, when numerous Muslim defendants, under scrutiny for links to terrorism, said that investigations had crossed a line. Defense attorneys and civil liberty champions raised concerns, but in general the public did not object. [snip]

In the Michigan kidnapping case, at least a dozen confidential informants, as well as two or more undercover FBI agents, helped gather evidence against the 14 men who were charged. This time around, the defendants are not part of a stigmatized minority; they are white, working-class men from rural America — part of a large and vocal constituency that has a powerful hold on the nation’s politics. And their anti-government, pro–Second Amendment stance is one that millions of Americans share. Law enforcement tactics that have long been tolerated, and even celebrated, when used against marginal groups are getting a very different reception this time around.

Oh, there's more. Wow. What an inexcusable mess. 🤦‍♀️