(Source: MIRS.news - Published 03/18/2022) For one Wolverine Watchmen member, the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also included discussions to give doctors who mandated COVID-19 vaccines a “bullet to the face." They also talked about decapitating any lawyers fighting to mandate the vaccine.
That testimony came via chat messages, text messages and secret recordings of the plot made by an Army veteran who testified this morning that he joined Wolverine Watchmen to maintain his gun skills, but when they discussed killing police, he turned to a law enforcement friend to report potential violence.
The witness, Dan Chappel, served as an FBI informant that led to Friday's trial for four men accused of conspiring to kidnap the Governor.
The government played snippets of secret recordings Chappel made while attending training sessions and meetings with Watchmen members, including defendants Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr., Adam Fox and Daniel Harris.
In those recordings, Fox and others discuss taking action "amid the chaos" of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests as well as snatching and hanging Whitmer, whom they described as a "good example" for their cause.
The discussions also included the group's organizational structure and Harris bragging that he can make explosives, which earlier testimony said were made but did not detonate.
Chappel, a postal worker, said he is a Libertarian and a gun rights advocate who founded the Watchmen on Facebook.
"They wanted to target law enforcement and kill them," he testified. About a week after reporting the group to his friend, Chappel said, "I was contacted by the FBI. … They asked if I would stay inside the group and monitor their activity."
Dan said he was concerned because he had a 2-year-old daughter at the time, but agreed to the request.
Morning testimony continued from FBI Special Agent Mark Schweers, who infiltrated the group as Mark Woods, an Upper Peninsula resident with like-minded anti-government sentiment.
Defense lawyers claim the FBI agents and their informants influenced the defendants, and Schweers acknowledged that he paid for meals and provided rides for Fox, who promised to make him "Warden of the North," a reference to HBO's "Game of Thrones" character Lord Eddard Stark.
The trial resumes Monday before U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids.
