(Ken Silva, Headline USA) At a public event last week featuring Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, independent reporter Eric VanDussen asked Nessel why her office has repeatedly falsely said that four men on trial for assisting in the plot to kidnap the state’s governor were part of the “Wolverine Watchmen.”
VanDussen’s question was a good one. An FBI agent in the case has already testified that the defendants weren’t members of the Wolverine Watchmen, and defense counsel has raised concerns that referring to the defendants as Watchmen—the main group that allegedly conspired to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer—will prejudice a jury against them.
However, VanDussen was treated with hostility for his valid question.
“With all due respect, you have a lawsuit against me, so I am going to decline to answer that question right now,” she said, referring to an open records lawsuit VanDussen has filed against the state, which has attempted to keep records about the case secret. “But will be happy to respond in court.”
Days later, the prosecution continued to attack VanDussen, while also continuing to spread the false claim that the defendants—Michael Null, William Null, Shawn Fix and Eric Molitor—were Watchmen.
Prosecutor William Rollstin called VanDussen an “agitator” at a hearing Wednesday, accusing him of working with the defense, rather than being an independent journalist.
“If I had to guess, I’ll bet Mr. VanDussen’s in the courtroom today. He was out at the townhall meeting last Friday … And [the attorney general] was questioned by Mr. VanDussen about the Wolverine Watchmen,” Rollstin said. “And remember, Mr. Vandussen is working very closely with [the defense]. He’s somewhat of an agitator, if you will.”
Rollstin then doubled down on referring to the defendants as Watchmen.
“The defendants are part of the Wolverine Watchmen to the extent that they’re all co-conspirators,” he said.
Wednesday’s hearing wasn’t the first time Rollstin has spread false information about the Whitmer case.
Last month, he falsely accused one of the alleged plotters of issuing a $1,000 bounty against an FBI informant who betrayed him.
“Barry Croft is a person the court is more familiar with … There was a contract we discovered. An offer was made for $1,000 for one of our informant’s addresses,” Rollstin said. “And I don’t think they were going to drop off flowers. This is serious business.”
However, Rollstin’s accusation was already debunked in federal court in February 2022, when federal prosecutors were trying to have undercover FBI agents testify under false names.
“The government can’t, in good faith, be arguing that after the government seized all of Mr. Croft’s electronics and while he was awaiting his first appearance in the District of Delaware that he somehow was arranging for people on the outside to offer ‘bounties’ and that he was also clairvoyantly disclosing discovery which he wouldn’t receive for months to come,” the defense said in a stinging rebuttal on Feb. 25, 2022.
A federal judge agreed with the defense last year, ruling that the undercover agents had to testify under their real names: special agents Timothy Bates and Mark Schweers.
Headline USA has written to the FBI and Michigan’s attorney general, asking for evidence that Croft was involved in a bounty. Neither party responded to this publication’s email queries.
VanDussen, for his part, hasn’t directly responded to the prosecution’s attacks against him. But he has referred to Rollstin’s statements in court documents as “disingenuous,” “cavalier,” and “blatantly false.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, the presiding judge told the defense they should file a motion if they want to have their concerns about the prosecution’s misinformation addressed.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
