(04-09-2022 11:51 AM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  I'd go a bit farther than FIB misconduct. What they are doing is criminal if anybody else did it.

Well they should have been co-defendants.

(04-09-2022 11:54 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 11:51 AM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  I'd go a bit farther than FIB misconduct. What they are doing is criminal if anybody else did it.

Well they should have been co-defendants.

A couple of the were defendants in other cases, such as assault and battery on one's wife who ended up having a better time at a swingers party than her FBI husband had.

Another major right-wing "domestic terror" case goes up in smoke after a jury sees it

Quote:Now the case of “US v. Bored-Rightwing-Potheads” has reached its inevitable conclusion. On Thursday, a Michigan jury acquitted two of the defendants on all charges, and deadlocked on charges against two more. (The final two pled guilty and cut deals to testify; even so, prosecutors couldn’t manage a conviction.)

It all sounds like a joke. Only those four men spent 18 months in jail, and the two who weren’t acquitted were sent right back, while prosecutors decide whether to try, try again.

And so the Whitmer kidnapping takes its place in the glorious pantheon of FBI entrapment cases. Two generations ago, the bureau mainly focused on left-wing political radicals. After Sept. 11, it devoted its attention to Islamist terror. Now right-wingers get the love. The problem - at least from the point of view of an ambitious FBI agent - is that there’s just not enough real conspiracy to go around.

This time, though, the FBI has its own bluecheck rooting section. Instead of asking tough questions about whether the bureau is overreaching, as they have in the past, the media is egging it on. NBC just ran a piece complaining about

The dangerous message sent by the Gov. Whitmer kidnapping verdict
Apparently allowing criminal defendants to go to trial and defeat prosecutors is now “dangerous.” Add the Sixth Amendment to those the left no longer endorses!

At least the garden centers are back open.

(04-09-2022 10:23 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 09:59 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 09:55 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  I'm disappointed by yesterday's verdicts

Why?

I haven't studied the case in-depth, but I wasn't impressed with what I've read about the entrapment defense. Obviously the jury felt differently though about that or some other aspect of the case, and their opinion is the only one that matters for the two acquitted men. I see one former US attorney thinks the prosecution didn't do a great job during jury selection -

"Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit, believes prosecutors “could have done a better job” of learning about the backgrounds and personal views of some jurors who were called up near the end of the all-day selection process."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jury...l-83958000

Whatever it was, prosecutors will have some time now to reevaluate how they handled the case before retrying the two "alleged leaders". If the entrapment defense is ultimately successful in getting all four of these men acquitted, I hope the FBI takes serious note and revises their practices accordingly. Monitoring extremist activity of all flavors is important for keeping the country safe, but I don't think anyone's interests are served if the FBI is wasting its resources goading people into plotting crimes they wouldn't have otherwise and can't be convicted of.

Substantive response — acknowledged.

I’m hearing that if there is a re-trial (for the 2 defendants that didn’t get a verdict), that there is actually even more exculpatory evidence to be shown, that didn’t get to the jury this time. So, we shall see about that. The fact is, a retrial would be a huge risk for the prosecution and they may decide it’s better at this point to just walk away.

I have absolutely Zero information about the people who served on the jury, and their personal/political backgrounds. But to Matthew Schneider’s point, I am very skeptical that the U.S. Attorneys office in Michigan didn’t research those questions very carefully during voir dire. And frankly, the fact that 2 defendants were not-acquitted is a very clear obstacle to the “right-wing jury” narrative. Believe me, a MAGA-dominated group of people would have cut all 4 of them loose.

(04-09-2022 01:20 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 10:23 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 09:59 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(04-09-2022 09:55 AM)Gamenole Wrote:  I'm disappointed by yesterday's verdicts

Why?

I haven't studied the case in-depth, but I wasn't impressed with what I've read about the entrapment defense. Obviously the jury felt differently though about that or some other aspect of the case, and their opinion is the only one that matters for the two acquitted men. I see one former US attorney thinks the prosecution didn't do a great job during jury selection -

"Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney in Detroit, believes prosecutors “could have done a better job” of learning about the backgrounds and personal views of some jurors who were called up near the end of the all-day selection process."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jury...l-83958000

Whatever it was, prosecutors will have some time now to reevaluate how they handled the case before retrying the two "alleged leaders". If the entrapment defense is ultimately successful in getting all four of these men acquitted, I hope the FBI takes serious note and revises their practices accordingly. Monitoring extremist activity of all flavors is important for keeping the country safe, but I don't think anyone's interests are served if the FBI is wasting its resources goading people into plotting crimes they wouldn't have otherwise and can't be convicted of.

Substantive response — acknowledged.

I’m hearing that if there is a re-trial (for the 2 defendants that didn’t get a verdict), that there is actually even more exculpatory evidence to be shown, that didn’t get to the jury this time. So, we shall see about that. The fact is, a retrial would be a huge risk for the prosecution and they may decide it’s better at this point to just walk away.

I have absolutely Zero information about the people who served on the jury, and their personal/political backgrounds. But to Matthew Schneider’s point, I am very skeptical that the U.S. Attorneys office in Michigan didn’t research those questions very carefully during voir dire. And frankly, the fact that 2 defendants were not-acquitted is a very clear obstacle to the “right-wing jury” narrative. Believe me, a MAGA-dominated group of people would have cut all 4 of them loose.

True.

If there's a retrial, it may be better that the prosecution doesnt bring the fbi into it at all.

I can find a defendant guilty even if I believe a witness against them is lying. But I will NOT find them guilty if it is law enforcement who I believe is lying. All it takes is one juror out of 12 with that mentality, and these cases go up in smoke.

(04-09-2022 01:30 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  If there's a retrial, it may be better that the prosecution doesnt bring the fbi into it at all.

Perhaps, but then the question becomes, how does the prosecution make its case without FBI agents taking the stand?

We need to get some new conspiracy theories. It seems most of our others have come true

Id still hit it



Sorry guys.

(04-10-2022 12:54 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Smollett actually orchestrated the whole thing.

I don’t believe Whitmer orchestrated this. At most, I think she went along with it, after the FBI told her what the narrative would be.