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FBI Says, Militia Plotted to Kidnap Michigan Governor, Overthrow Government. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 08, 2020 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:02]

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Other European countries on that list include France, Spain, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands. Italy is also extending its state of emergency until January 31st.

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: I hope to see you tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: Hello, I am Brianna Keilar and I want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

We are beginning with breaking news. Any moment, the FBI is expected to announce it has overthrown a militia plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. Were told six men are accused of also trying to overthrow the government.

But let's bring in Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz to talk about the details here. Shimon, this is what we are just learning. Tell us what you know.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So in the criminal complaint that was released by the U.S. attorney, as you said, it's six individuals. And what the FBI details here is quite an extensive plot involving several individuals, groups who talked about kidnapping the governor, who talked about overthrowing the government and using other people in their plot to try and conduct this activity.

What's really notable in all of this is that the FBI caught onto this group in early 2020, they say, through social media. And they were able to infiltrate the group. They used several human sources, paid confidential human sources, but then they also used undercovers to infiltrate this group. And they were really able to get ahead of this plot. So that really -- they were able to control it, it certainly lessened any kind of danger that the governor faced, which is important, and probably, in some ways, the governor may have been aware of this plot.

But what they detail is training, how this group talked about their own unhappiness with the governor. At one point, they talk about a Facebook posting, a video where one of the leaders of this group talked about being unhappy about the governor closing gyms in Michigan, obviously tied to the pandemic and some of the measures put in place in Michigan. They talked about bringing other people in, recruiting people. They say that they were training. There was firearms training, they even talked about improvised explosive devices that were potentially going to be used.

But most important, all of this coming as the FBI director has recently warned about this kind of a threat, the fear that the country here faces in light of this threat, in light of the rhetoric, in light of the division across the country. The FBI director talking about some of these extremist groups, these domestic violent groups here that have these kind of ideas to do these kinds of crimes, to try and overthrow government, but, certainly, how extensive this was.

They even, Brianna, talked about trying to kidnap the governor from a summer residence, a vacation home, and using a boat to try and escape. As I said, we're going to have more details here shortly from the FBI. We're expected to hear from the governor in just a few hours as well, Brianna.

KEILAR: And, Shimon, had they taken any steps to try to make any of this a reality to prepare for any of this?

PROKUPECZ: Certainly there was some steps, the training, but the FBI was along the entire process. They have their confidential informants that were working with them, they had undercovers that were working with them. So they were able to have eyes on this entire operation, infiltrate it to prevent any kind of serious danger.

But, certainly, there were certain steps taken, the recruitment, the firearms training, other methods that they used to try and further this plot. But, of course, very important to note that the FBI was along this plot from what ultimately is the beginning up until they made these arrests, Brianna.

KEILAR: And this is all happening, Shimon, as domestic terrorism has been a concern just kind of writ large with law enforcement in the U.S. They have concerns certainly. We know white supremacy has been one of the big concerns but it all speaks to domestic terrorism being a threat that federal officials have been taking very seriously and trying to communicate the seriousness of.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's exactly right. And this is what the FBI director recently warned about. This is what even DHS, Homeland Security, has warned about. There are these groups, people -- several people all this across the country, no doubt, that the FBI is following.

[13:05:04]

There could be other operations like this, and we just don't know about yet.

But this is a major focus of the FBI right now. And I think the FBI director has certainly made it clear, FBI agents all across this country are trying to get inside these groups, trying to infiltrate, trying to gain information about what people could be up to. KEILAR: Shimon, I'm going to you paused. Let's listen into officials briefing on this.

DANA NESSEL, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- without a unified front, including all levels of law enforcement focused on protecting the safety and well-being of our citizens. So today, I am joined by U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Andrew Birge, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider. Any moment now, we will have the FBI assistant special agent in charge, Josh Hauxhurst, and we have Michigan State Police Colonel Joe Gasper.

The interagency effort represented here in tandem with my office culminated in the execution of several search warrants and arrests across the state, including in the communities of Grand Rapids, Hartland, Luther, Canton, Orion Township, Waterford, Belleville, Milford, Cadillac, Shelbyville, Plainwell, Zeeland, Munith, Ovid, Kalamazoo, Charlotte, Clarkston, Sterling Heights and Shelby Township.

Our efforts uncovered elaborate plans to endanger the lives of law enforcement officers, government officials and the broader public, multi-front operation to apprehend the suspects in question was carefully coordinated and skillfully executed resulting, very fortunately, in no casualties.

Now, before we announce the preliminary charges, I want to thank the hundreds of law enforcement officers who worked across agencies and across state lines and we are very grateful for their safety.

And with that, I'll ask the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, Mr. Andrew Birge, to tell you a little bit more about the effort.

ANDREW BIRGE, U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: Good afternoon. Thank you, Attorney General Nessel.

Last night, the FBI and Michigan State Police arrested six individuals charged in a federal complaint with conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. According to the complaint unsealed this morning, Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta conspired to kidnap the governor from her vacation home in the Western District of Michigan before the November election.

Under federal law, each of these individuals faces a term of any number of years up to life in prison if convicted. Fox, Garbin, Franks, Harris, Caserta are residents of Michigan. Croft is a resident of Delaware.

All of us standing here today want the public to know that federal and state law enforcement are committed to working together to make sure violent extremists never succeed with their plans, particularly when they target our duly elected leaders.

The federal complaint in this case alleges that the FBI began an investigation earlier this year after becoming aware that, through social media, that a group of individuals was discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components.

Through confidential sources, undercover agents and clandestine recordings, law enforcement learned particular individuals were planning to kidnap the governor and acting in furtherance of that plan. The alleged conspirators used operational security measures, including communicating by encrypted messaging platforms, and used code words and phrases in an attempt to avoid detection by law enforcement.

Among others activities, members of this conspiracy on two occasions conducted coordinated surveillance on the governor's vacation home. Fox and Croft, in particular, according to the complaint, discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the home.

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And Fox even inspected the underside of a Michigan highway bridge for places to seat an explosive.

The complaint further alleges that Fox purchased a taser for use in the kidnapping and that the group successfully detonated an improvised explosive device wrapped with shrapnel to test its anti-personnel capabilities.

The FBI and state police executed arrests of several conspirators when they were meeting on the east side of the state to pool funds for explosives and exchange tactical gear.

This investigation is ongoing. Agents of Detroit Field Office of the FBI and other members of their Joint Terrorism Task Force, including Michigan State Police, are conducting this investigation. Agents in the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI, which covers Delaware, have also assisted.

My office, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Western District of Michigan, is prosecuting the federal case. U.S. attorneys offices in the Eastern District of Michigan and Delaware are and have been assisting. And the state of Michigan has brought related charges against other individuals.

Of course, those charged with a crime still have rights that we respect. The allegations in the complaint are accusations and if any is presumed innocent until unless proven guilty in a court of law. These defendants have begun to make their initial appearances in federal court and the court will be scheduling their arraignments as well as bond in preliminary hearings.

Now, it is my privilege to introduce to you the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Matthew Schneider, for some additional remarks. Thank you.

MATTHEW SCHNEIDER, U.S. ATTORNEY, EATERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN: Thank you, Andrew. Good afternoon.

All of us in Michigan can disagree about politics but those disagreements should never, ever amount to violence. Because of the hard work of the men and women of law enforcement, police officers and federal agents, violence has been prevented today.

This case is being brought in the Western District of Michigan. Some of the defendants reside in the Eastern District where some of the search warrants took place. But at the end of the day, what matters most is that the people of Michigan should be reassured that our state and federal governments are working together to keep us all safe.

I wanted to thank the Attorney General Nessel and her office for her outstanding work and her committed partnership. I also thank the Colonel Gasper, the FBI and, of course, U.S. Attorney Birge.

Every day, police officers and federal agents put their lives on the line and they do that for us. In this case, the agents made swift and safe arrests. And those were done by those officers and agents. We are most thankful to them. Thank you.

It is my pleasure now to introduce the director of the Michigan State Police, Colonel Joe Gasper.

COL. JOSEPH GASPER, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: Thank you, Attorney General Nessel, U.S. Attorneys Birge and Schneider, and thank you to the FBI also. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to everyone today and I would first like to start out by saying thank you to the men and women of the Michigan State Police, the FBI and any additional agencies that assisted in this investigation. They not only worked tirelessly over the course of the last 24 to 48 hours but also since the beginning of the investigation. So, thank you, job well done.

To the partners here today, I want to express our gratitude for the support and cooperation, the partnership that all of us here are demonstrating. This case is one of the largest cases in recent history that the MSP has been involved in. And I think that the nature of this case is rather unprecedented but it does send a very vivid reminder that while we may be in a time period of discourse, possibly even divisiveness and fighting across the nation, law enforcement stands united.

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And for those who think that law enforcement is distracted, let me assure you that we are very much engaged with taking our responsibility to protect the public very seriously. We took an oath to protect and defend and to serve, and together, we will take swift action against anyone who is planning or seeking to commit violence or harm to anyone in the state of Michigan.

Thank you again for the cooperation and I will now turn it back to Attorney General Nessel.

NESSEL: Okay. Well, unfortunately, it appears as though FBI Assistant Special Agent Hauxhurst has not made it with us in time. But -- is he here? He is on his way? Okay. Well, if he gets here when I am done speaking, I will try to speak slowly so that we can make time for his appearance. But, anyway, thanks again to the colonel and to, of course, U.S. Attorneys Birge and Schneider, and, you know, the FBI, state police, everyone's effort here so important. But I would like to announce that my office has filed additional charges in addition to the charges already announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District, account of the state.

We have additional charges. So I would like to announce the following preliminary charges pursuant to the Michigan Anti-Terrorism Act against seven individuals, all of whom are now in custody, linked to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen and associates of Wolverine Watchmen.

The individuals in custody are suspected to have attempted to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them, made threats of violence intended to instigate a civil war and engaged in planning and training for an operation to attack the capitol building of Michigan and to kidnap government officials, including the governor of Michigan.

Now, it's important to note that these charges are subject to change after a complete review of the evidence obtained last night and may differ from those charged at the federal level. So we've issued the following charges against the following individuals.

Paul Beller, age 21 of Milford, who is charged with three felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, 20-year felony and/or $20,000 fine, gang membership, 20-year felony, which may be served as consecutive sentence, carrying or possessing a firearm during commission of a felony, otherwise known as felony firearm, two- year mandatory prison sentence to be served consecutive to other charges.

Shawn Fix, age 38 of Belleville, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, a 20-year felony, carrying or possessing firearm during the commission of a felony, felony firearm.

Eric Molitor, age 36 of Cadillac, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying or possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony, felony firearm.

Michael Null, age 38 of Plainwell, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts and carrying or possessing a firearm during commission of a felony, felony firearm.

William Null of Shelbyville, charged with two felony counts, providing material support for terrorist acts, and carrying or possessing a firearm during a commission of a felony, felony firearm.

And, finally, Pete Musico, age 42, and Joseph Morrison, age 42, who live together in Munith, and these men are both charged with four felony counts, one count of threat of terrorism, 20-year felony, and/or $20,000 fine, one count of gang membership, again, a 20-year felony. That may be served as a consecutive sentence, one count each, providing material support for terrorist acts, and one count each for carrying or possessing a firearm during a commission of a felony, felony firearm.

And before I continue with my remarks, I see that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Josh Hauxhurst is here. And i would like to bring him up for a few remarks.

[13:20:00]

JOSH HAUXHURST, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Good morning, thank you.

On behalf of the FBI in Michigan, I would to thank you and our partners of the U.S. Attorney Offices of both the Western and Eastern Districts of Michigan and the Michigan Attorney General's Office and Michigan State Police.

The primary mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. This investigation is an example of our continued commitment to that mission to both protect the people of the state and to adhere to the rights reserved by the Constitution.

The alleged conspirators are extremists who undertook a plot to kidnap a sitting governor. Whatever extremist move into the realm of actually plotting or planning violent acts, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force stands ready to identify, disrupt and dismantle their operations, preventing them from following through on those plans.

An operation of this scope cannot occur without assistance of law enforcement agencies large and small. We're incredibly proud of the work of our agents, task force officers and law enforcement partners during last night's operation and throughout the course of this investigation.

We rely on the public's assistance to help keep us safe. If you see suspected criminal activity and want to report it to the FBI, please call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit tips online at tips.fbi.gov. Thank you.

NESSEL: Thank you, Special Agent.

Well, with that, I just want to do a few things. First of all, I think it is important to give a shout-out at least to my staff since I have the ability to do that since we're in our home offices here. And I just want to, with deep gratitude, thank Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, Chief Deputy Christina Grossi, Chief of our Criminal Division, Danielle Hagaman-Clark, John Pallas, our First Assistant in our Criminal Division, the head of our Hate Crimes Division, Sunita Doddamani, and Tom Fabus, who is chief of our Investigative Unit. So I wanted to say thanks to all of you.

And in addition, of course, it is always important again to reiterate that a criminal charge is merely an allegation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

But with that, I want to thank everyone up here in law enforcement and everyone who participated in this matter, who will continue, of course, to participate in this matter for their incredible efforts, their very brave efforts over the course of the past many months and to say to them that your efforts have left the people of the state safer and the instruments of our government stronger. And I know that I speak on behalf of Michiganders all across the state when I say that we are grateful and we are indebted to you for your actions. So, thank you very much.

KEILAR: If they take questions, we will certainly come back to that.

But in the meantime, let's just talk about and understand what we're just hearing now out of Lansing, Michigan.

The FBI and state law enforcement there broke up a militia plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. And according to state officials there, there were also a number of state charges related to terrorism about trying to kidnap government officials, in addition to the governor, and looking up home addresses to target law enforcement. And it appeared to attack the state capitol building and to incite a civil war. So that's what we just learned from law enforcement officials at the federal and the state level.

I want to bring Shimon Prokupecz back, he is covering this, as well as Andrew McCabe, who is a CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, he's the former deputy director at the FBI.

Andrew, to you first. Just take us through what is the most important thing or things that you heard during this press conference out of Michigan.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure, and thanks very much for having me, Brianna.

This is really an incredible example of what the FBI does best with its JTTF partners, these partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Forces. I can tell you from my own experience of having dealt with literally dozens and dozens of similar plots during my own time in the FBI that this plot has all of the hallmarks of a very, very serious, dangerous situation that we are all fortunate that the FBI and their partners have gotten in the middle of.

So a couple of things really, really reached out to me as I listen to the conference, and I'm just referring to my notes here.

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First, I would point out that this is yet another violent group plotting a violent act that the FBI was able to uncover because of their presence on social media. So going onto social media and interacting with these folks where they talk in their groups continues to be a very, very important way for the FBI and our law enforcement folks to keep us safe and to prevent these acts from happening.

It was also interesting to me that they indicated use of undercover agents. So that is a time-tested and very reliable way for the FBI to figure out very early if what they're seeing on social media is just false puffery and bravado or if, in fact, it is a legitimate plot that is in action.

Ultimately, you make that determination by finding out, putting someone into that group and developing an understanding of exactly what they're doing. And in this case, they were conducting surveillance on the governor's vacation home, they constructed and detonated a practice explosive device. I mean, this is not a group of, you know, poor, hapless nobodies who couldn't pull off a violent act on their own. This is clearly a group of people that were very focused on accomplishing this violent objective.

So it's got really all of the earmarks of a very serious plot and I think we're lucky that the FBI was in the place they were to be able to do the work they did today.

KEILAR: And we also take note that the reason they were able to arrest, at least when it comes to the federal charges, the six men they arrested were meeting on the eastern side of the state to pool their funds, to pool their money so that they could purchase, Shimon, tactical gear and explosives. So they obviously had already done some operational things like the detonation of what was supposed to be, I guess, a decoy explosive, but this is operational stuff they were doing.

PROKUPECZ: So by what the law enforcement officials there said, it is clear that this was at the end stage or getting close to the end stage of the operation. They wanted to do this, according to the criminal complaint, by Election Day, right? So that's less than a month away. And so they met just yesterday, October 7th -- I believe that's yesterday -- where they talked about making a payment for explosives and to exchange tactical gear.

The other thing I think that's very significant to note what the law enforcement officials there said, we are certainly living in unprecedented times, and to hear the head of the state police there say that this is an unprecedented case, that this is the largest case that they have certainly been a part of, I think that's significant.

And it tells you the magnitude of this. It tells you what law enforcement which we don't get to see because of this kind of work, we don't get to see exactly what the FBI is doing, what other law enforcement partners are doing to try and thwart these threats that we have recently heard the FBI director, Christopher Wray, talk about. We don't get to see this work until it comes to this, until it comes to a day like today.

The other thing that I think it's important to note is when we heard the prosecutors there speak and how they talked about that this is a time period of discourse, of fighting across the nation, while it is okay to disagree with politics, it should not turn violent.

So, clearly, from listening to them, you can tell there's a lot of concern across the country about the discourse, the political discourse, what's going on, the fighting across the country, law enforcement is really on high alert for this. And I think this plot, what is alleged in the complaint, certainly shows that. I mean, they were talking about, according to the complaint, snatch and grab, just grabbing the governor, storming the capitol, ways in which they could kidnap her. They talked about getting a taser. They talked about finding a location to take her to. I mean, this was far along in the process and the months that they spent.

And the work that the FBI did to get inside this group, I think that's very important to note. They didn't just use one informant, they had at least two informants, they had undercovers inside this operation because of the level of concern surrounding this. I think all of this is so notable, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, you mention just the actions they had already taken, that one of the suspects, Adam Fox, had already bought a taser, that they had talked about a highway bridge where they could plant an explosive, that they had discussed this plan to divert police with an explosion and they had already practiced carrying out that explosion, that, two times, they had done coordinated surveillance.