(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A pair of Hollywood writers are reportedly working on a television show that will dramatize the 2020 so-called militia conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but the men found not guilty of the plot have not been consulted.
“They haven’t reached out to Brandon Caserta or any of these victims or their families about portraying them in this show,” journalist Christina Urso, who is working on a separate documentary about the case, said on Friday.
“They haven’t been offered any ability to consult on the project and tell the true story. This is their story, and it makes me angry they seek to profit off it, while offering nothing to these men.”
Caserta and Daniel Harris were found not guilty by a jury of their peers in April 2022. The same jury couldn’t reach a verdict on Adam Fox and Barry Croft, but they were found guilty in a retrial later that year. Croft and Fox are being held in supermax prisons—caged with the likes of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols and 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef—while their appeals are pending.
Meanwhile, four other men have yet to be tried on state charges related to the alleged plan, which was in fact heavily driven by the FBI.
The impending Whitmer kidnap show was first reported by Deadline.
While the nearly entrapped men were not consulted, the good news is that the show will be based off of the reporting of Ken Bensinger and Jessica Garrison, according to Deadline. Bensinger and Garrison did outstanding work exposing widespread FBI malfeasance in the case—breaking stories about an FBI agent in the investigation violently beating his wife to within an inch of her life, low-life informants manipulating defendants and other improper activity.
Bensinger and Garrison are also reportedly working on a podcast about the case.
“Ken and I dug into the Michigan plot thinking we were going to learn about right-wing extremism in America and explore whether the U.S. government is overreaching in prosecuting these cases. And we did that. But we also uncovered a deeply human dark comedy, and we’re so excited to be able to tell that story in a podcast,” Garrison told Deadline.
Bensinger reportedly added, “This was an extreme example of the kind of case that played to public perceptions, shocking the public in its terrifying detail when it was first revealed just weeks before the 2020 election. But the truth was far stranger and murkier, turning the official story very soundly on its head.”
However, both the podcast and television show will likely portray the case as a dark comedy of errors. According to documentarian Urso, the truth is far worse—she believes the FBI engaged in a malicious entrapment against the defendants.
I think it's great that more people will hear about this case, but I don't think it will reflect the whole truth. @brandon_caserta was entrapped and framed by the FBI. He spent 18 months in prison. He lost his job, his apartment, the feds cut and ripped up his car. He's had no… https://t.co/kKjjEhXXch
— Radix Verum (@NotRadix) May 19, 2023
“I think it’s great that more people will hear about this case, but I don’t think it will reflect the whole truth. Brandon Caserta was entrapped and framed by the FBI. He spent 18 months in prison. He lost his job, his apartment, the feds cut and ripped up his car,” she said.
“He’s had no compensation for this injustice and is trying to slowly rebuild. If they are going to profit off his story they should ask for his input and offer to give some proceeds to the families of these men.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
