(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/02/2024) The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear a technical question regarding an appeal filed by Paul Bellar, one of the men convicted in connection with the plot to kidnap and kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Bellar's appeal will continue, however.
In its Monday order, the court said it was "not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court."
Bellar was one of three men convicted in Jackson County Circuit Court for providing material support in summer 2020 to the plot spearheaded by Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., according to trial testimony.
Appeals for the co-defendants, Pete Musico and Joseph Morrison, remain pending in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The trio were among 14 men state and federal prosecutors alleged planned to kidnap and kill Whitmer in an effort to start a second civil war, but FBI agents were able to thwart the plot after a group member alerted a police friend and became an informant.
The defense attorneys argued during court proceedings that the undercover informant, including police officers, led the discussion about kidnapping the governor.
Fox, 41, and Croft, 48, were convicted in federal court and subsequently sentenced to prison. Both are housed at the Bureau of Prison's USP Florence ADMAX facility in Florence, Colorado.
Bellar, Musico and Morrison were initially held in a state prison, but they have since been transferred to federal prisons.
Bellar, 25, is housed at the Bureau of Prison's Schuylkill Federal Correctional Institute in Minersville, Pennsylvania; and Musico, 46, at the BOP's Gilmer facility in Glenville, West Virginia, while Morrison, 29, is at the Pekin Federal Correctional Institute in Pekin, Illinois.
Of the 14 men charged, the cases ended with four plea deals, five convictions and five acquittals.
6th Circuit Panel Hears Arguments In Fox, Croft Appeal
Attorneys for Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox told a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel Thursday that the trial court erred by excluding thousands of text messages between federal agents and informants.
Timothy Sweeney, who represents Croft, said the case clearly was "close" based on the first trial, which resulted in two acquittals and a hung jury, and communications between the informants and FBI agents were improper and should have been seen by the jury.
"Juries are persuaded by evidence,” he said. " … This additional evidence would have made the difference … The ability to persuade jurors really matters …
"This stuff matters because it highlights the conduct of the government agents … It may not be that Fox and Croft heard all the sausage making that was going on, but it was going on relentlessly between (informant) Dan (Chappel) and (FBI agent Jason) Chambers as to how they were leading these guys along," Sweeney argued.
Steven S. Nolder, who represents Fox, focused on U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker's private in-chamber meeting with a juror, who was accused of telling co-workers that he intended to find the men guilty regardless of evidence presented in court.
Nolder, of Columbus, Ohio, cited the Seventh Circuit's 1998 ruling in United States v. Stafford, that held a midtrial meeting over juror misconduct could only be held "when there is a strong indicator of bias."
Nolder said Fox's trial attorney should have been allowed to participate in that meeting.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler, who tried the case, countered that if the defendants were predisposed to commit criminal activity, the excluded evidence "doesn't matter."
Circuit Judge Joan L. Larsen, a Trump appointee, questioned whether the informants' messages urged the defendants to make definitive plans for the kidnapping, but Kessler said there were no statements "that put that kind of pressure" on the defendants.
"You simply don't have it," Kessler noted. " … They have a burden to identify with specificity messages that should have come in, and they didn't do it …
"The evidence is clear that they might ask them what is your plan, but the plans are all clearly coming from the defendants. Pressing them to disclose what their plans are is not the same as saying, 'We need to go kidnap the governor,'" he added.
Circuit Judge Chad Readler, also a Trump appointee, said an informant commented "we need to go up north," and he questioned why that isn't a suggestion to commit the crime alleged.
Kessler replied that statement can be attributed entirely to Fox, who made suggestions five previous times, including surveilling the Governor's vacation home and researching the most advantageous place to launch a boat.
However, Nolder said that statement was made by an informant, according to the transcript of the trial testimony.
Readler also questioned which defendant first expressed concern about Whitmer potentially joining President Joe Biden's cabinet.
Kessler replied that was defendant Ty Garbin, a Hartland Township man who admitted in August 2021 that he trained for an assault on the Governor's summer home.
Circuit Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis, a Biden appointee, also participated in the oral arguments, which were held in Nashville instead of Cincinnati. There is no timetable for a decision.
