Attorneys for 3 men charged in plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer plan entrapment defense

Attorneys laid out defense plan in court on Tuesday

Attorneys for the three men charged in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer laid out how they plan to present their defense.

The Local 4 Defenders investigated the alleged plot from the training, to maps drawing up an attack on Whitmer’s summer home, to encrypted texts from some of the men saying they were all in with the domestic terror plot.

READ: New federal charges added in Whitmer kidnapping plot investigation

Three members of the Wolverine Watchmen were back in court on Tuesday for a video hearing.

Pete Musico, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar are all charged with supporting the plot. The defense is going to argue that the FBI entrapped the men, led the training and pushed the plot.

“We will file an entrapment motion,” Nicholas Somberg, the attorney for Joseph Morrison, said.

Bellar, the youngest of the group, and from Milford, asked the judge for permission to travel to his father’s home in South Carolina ot gather his belongings and drive back to Michigan.

“Dates, location, GPS, can track the entire way and entire way home,” Bellar’s attorney Andrew Kirkpatrick said.

Lawyer’s with the Attorney General’s office argued that given the severity of the charges an out-of-state trip is a bad idea. The judge gave Bellar four days to make the trip.


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About the Authors

Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.

Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.

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