An FBI informant in the alleged plot to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed Monday the bureau requested that Michigan State Police allow armed protesters into the state Capitol during an April 30, 2020, anti-lockdown demonstration, according to journalist Ken Bensinger.
Dan Chappel testified Monday and Tuesday in Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.’s retrial for the alleged kidnapping plot. He said the FBI specifically asked state police to allow armed protesters into the state Capitol for de-escalation purposes in the protest, which he attended with Wolverine Watchmen militia members during his informant tenure, Bensinger reported.
NEW: According to an FBI informant, the Michigan State Police allowed armed protesters into the Capitol in Lansing on April 30, 2020, at the specific request of the FBI, which wanted to “de-escalate” the situation. pic.twitter.com/MAGn8bcmrx
— Ken Bensinger (@kenbensinger) August 15, 2022
Hundreds of demonstrators called for Whitmer to end a COVID-19 stay-at-home order that day, the Lansing State Journal reported. (RELATED: DOJ Admits It Acted Outside Scope ‘Authorized’ By Court When Seizing Trump Passports: REPORT)
Fox and Croft are being retried on charges of planning to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in 2020 because of her COVID-19 restrictions, according to Kalamazoo’s WWMT. A jury failed to reach a verdict about them and acquitted two others in April after their defense contended the FBI entrapped them, The Associated Press reported.
Chappel is a postal worker. Fox’s defense attorney Chris Gibbons noted the bureau paid Chappel cash for 17 weeks of lost wages, a smart watch and a $4,300 laptop he claimed to have purchased for school, Fox 17 Michigan‘s Michael Martin reported.
Chappel begins talking about wanting to go to college at some point in the future. Says he purchased the $4K laptop with his own money for school, but that the FBI wanted to see his receipts & wanted to pay for the laptop.
Laptop was bought ~3 weeks before arrests. (@FOX17) https://t.co/6nMJW2NFgr
— Michael E Martin (@MichaelMartinGR) August 16, 2022
Gibbons reminded Chappel he had testified in the previous trial that the FBI gave him a credit card to offer other Wolverine Watchmen members for “ammo, supplies” and “hotel rooms,” according to Fox 17.
Chappel characterized Fox on Monday as the alleged kidnapping plot group’s driving force, claiming he himself had reluctantly become an FBI informant after joining the Wolverine Watchmen and eventually fearing they would kill police, according to the Detroit Free Press. The jury heard a recording of Fox saying, “you don’t even have to convince me” to kidnap Whitmer, the outlet reported.
The FBI did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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