(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A man accused of helping plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revealed Thursday that he actually voted for Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, in 2018.
The defendant, Eric Molitor, isn’t a central player in the kidnap plot, but prosecutors say he helped militias in their conspiracy—namely, by filming Whitmer’s property during a daytime car ride with an FBI informant on Aug. 29, 2020.
Molitor told jurors Thursday that he became active in the militia movement amidst the riots and lockdowns of 2020. At the time, he said he was worried about groups like Antifa burning down towns nearby his home in Cadillac, Michigan.
Molitor said Whitmer’s name didn’t come up when he was encouraged by the scheme’s leader, Adam Fox, to go to Antrim County to check out a “high-profile vacation house” in August 2020.
On the night of the surveillance car ride, Molitor said he thought he, the FBI informant and another alleged plotter were going to scope a home where Antifa was staying.
“To me, heard Antifa was holing up in hotels and motels,” Molitor said. “I’m assuming this could be a place Antifa’s looking to hole up in.”
Molitor’s testimony lasted most of the day. He is set to be cross-examined by the prosecution on Friday.
The FBI has already been caught doctoring evidence in an attempt to make it look like Molitor knew he was going to surveill Whitmer’s home on the day of the car ride.
The FBI’s doctored evidence is from audio recordings of two separate conversations Molitor had on Aug. 29, 2020, with undercover FBI informant Dan Chappel and Adam Fox, the alleged “ringleader” of the Whitmer kidnap plot who was found guilty of federal crimes last year.
The audio recordings took place the same day Molitor, Chappel and Fox allegedly conducted daytime surveillance of Whitmer’s home in upstate Michigan.
In one clip, Fox and Molitor can be heard joking about blowing up Whitmer’s boat—“Bitch, your boat privileges have been revoked,” Fox is heard saying. In a separate audio clip, Fox describes in more detail an “extraction” plan for Whitmer, to which Molitor is heard replying, “Dude, I’m in.”
During court proceedings last week, Impola testified that the two audio recordings took place within minutes of each other, as Fox, Molitor and Chappel were driving to conduct surveillance on Whitmer’s home. The timing of these two conversations would indicate that Molitor agreed to the Whitmer plot and participated in the surveillance drive knowingly, according to the prosecution.
However, the audio recordings actually took place more than four hours apart, meaning that Molitor didn’t know about Fox’s “plan” to kidnap the governor until after he took the “surveillance” car ride. In other words, Molitor didn’t know what he was participating in when he took that ride with Fox and Chappel, according to Barnett.
The defense attorney pleaded with Judge Hamlyn to toss the case due to the error, but the judge declined.
Molitor’s decision to testify was a rare move: In four trials so far in state and federal courts, only one other defendant has taken the witness stand. He was acquitted.
Fourteen men were arrested just a month before the November 2020 election. Nine have been convicted in state or federal court while two have been acquitted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
