From the Combating Terrorism Center @ West Point
'How the FBI Compromised the Conspiracy
Extreme far-right groups are taking an increasing interest in operational security, using encrypted messaging services to obscure indicators that might otherwise signal that an act of violence is imminent.107 The Wolverine Watchmen were no different, their behavior in this sphere regarded as “indicative of their intent” by prosecutors.108 FBI Director Christopher Wray has testified that the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer “was only disrupted by well-timed human source reporting and the resulting undercover operation.”109 Indeed, a combination of Confidential Human Sources (CHS) and Undercover Employees (UCE) proved integral to the FBI’s ability to overcome the digital counter-measures the group put in place to avoid detection, though there was an element of happenstance in this.
In early 2020, “Dan,” a U.S. Postal Service worker who had served in Iraq110 and held libertarian beliefs, was browsing Facebook when the platform’s algorithm suggested to him that, due to his previous interactions with other pages that supported the Second Amendment and firearms training, he might be interested in a group called the Wolverine Watchmen as well. “I was scrolling through Facebook one day and they popped up as a suggestion post,” he later testified. “I clicked on the page and it had a few questions to answer.”111 Having answered these to the group’s satisfaction, “Dan” joined the militia group, and gained access to their encrypted chats. He quickly became “alarmed” after seeing a post from Musico concerning how to find the home addresses of police officers, interpreting this as a threat to “kill them.”112 Dan informed a friend in the police who relayed the information to the FBI who in turn recruited him to become a confidential informant, referred to as “CHS-2” in the criminal complaint.113
Thus, even before the Wolverine Watchmen had become embroiled in the kidnap plot, the FBI had a source at the heart of the group enabling them to document every step in the conspiracy’s evolution and to interdict it when they perceived the would-be kidnappers were moving from words to action. By the time they arrested the conspirators, the FBI had “multiple” sources within the group, including two UCEs. Indeed, the FBI appears to have had a CHS or a UCE, or both, present at nearly every group meeting, which collectively it either recorded or reported on in one way or another.114 Evidence from these sources (there appear to have been at least four) amounted to “hundreds of hours” of audio recordings and over 13,000 pages of encrypted chat messages, not to mention data recovered from mobile phones and computers as well as firearms and explosive device components that were seized when the men were arrested.115
Other sources of evidence include four separate Facebook accounts set up by Barry Croft, which the FBI had gained access to through a federal warrant from April 2020 onward, including one account, opened on September 26, 2020, through which he and Fox interacted.116 The FBI also gained a warrant for Croft’s two mobile phones, giving them access to the apps and social media accounts that he used to communicate with the group and which now form part of the case against the conspirators.117
Having a human source at the heart of the Wolverine Watchmen before anyone broached the idea of kidnapping Whitmer enabled the FBI to compromise the plotter’s subsequent operational security measures from the outset. During the course of one meeting on June 20, 2020, held in the basement of the shop that Fox was living in, which was only accessible through a trap door hidden under the carpet, all the plotters had to leave their mobile phones upstairs to prevent monitoring. It mattered little. CHS-2 was already wearing a wire and recorded the proceedings. As the plot progressed, the conspirators became increasingly paranoid about the prospect of infiltration by law enforcement and, at a subsequent meeting held in Lake Orion, all attendees were required to bring personal documents that confirmed their identities.118
Since he was a trusted member of the group, CHS-2 had access to their encrypted text messages, their private Facebook group, and recorded the phone calls and conversations he had with the other plotters. Rightly, as it transpired, Franks became worried that the “Feds” had access to their encrypted communications.119 At Harris’ suggestion, the conspirators ditched Wire on August 18, 2020, and then stayed offline until August 23 when they met at his home and adopted a new encrypted messaging service, Threema, which had the virtue of allowing the instantaneous deletion of their messages in the event of contact with law enforcement.120
In this instance, the FBI easily overcame these enhanced operational security measures because they retained access to the group’s encrypted communications through CHS-2, whom the other conspirators continued to trust.121 As previously mentioned, the group regularly employed “code words” in their communications to obfuscate their true intentions, which CHS-2 interpreted for his handlers based on the context of the conversations. When the group attempted to construct an IED while training in Wisconsin, CHS-2 provided the FBI with video of the event together with other photos and videos of their exercises shared in the group’s private Facebook discussions.122
On August 29, 2020, as the plotters’ activities were intensifying, CHS-2 accompanied Fox and another Wolverine Watchman, Eric Molitor, to conduct daytime surveillance of Whitmer’s private vacation home, and later supplied his handlers with an audio recording of the operation. Such was the FBI’s penetration of the group that by the time that Fox briefed eight members of the group about this surveillance effort and his plans to kidnap the governor (during a training exercise staged in Luther, Michigan, over the weekend of September 12-13, 2020), the FBI had a CHS and two UCEs present.123
As already outlined, on the evening of September 12, 2020, the group conducted a nighttime reconnaissance of the governor’s home, making the 80-mile trip from Ty Garbin’s property in Luther to Whitmer’s private vacation home in three vehicles. Several of the men were armed, according to the criminal complaint. Before they left, Fox had another member of the group scan each of the participants with a radio frequency interference device to detect any potential recording or transmitting devices, though this security measure failed to detect any FBI devices.124 The FBI had human sources in two of the cars. In the first car, Fox and Croft were joined by CHS-2, “Red” (an FBI UCE whom CHS-2 had introduced into the group), and “an individual from Wisconsin”125 who was also working for the FBI. This individual’s relationship with the FBI subsequently soured, however, and he currently faces weapons charges.126
When on that September night Fox stopped to inspect the underside of a bridge, which the group had discussed destroying with explosives to divert police away from Whitmer’s home, “Red” accompanied him. Fox discussed where best to place explosive charges before taking a picture of the bridge’s support structure, which he subsequently shared with CHS-2. “Red” told Fox he would need $4,000 worth of explosives to blow up the bridge. Even in the second vehicle, in which the FBI had no human source, the FBI still obtained the digital dash camera footage and its GPS data, which placed the vehicle right at the end of Whitmer’s drive, since one of occupants, Brian Higgins, shared this with CHS-2 who passed it on.127
The FBI moved to shut things down as the group began talking about enacting its plans before the November election but also in response to the “potential compromise” of one of its confidential sources.128 To end things, the FBI had CHS-2 inform the conspirators that “Red” was passing through and would do a “show and tell” for them to pick out the explosives and tactical gear they wanted.129 The journey to meet “Red” on October 7, 2020, was tense. Enroute to the rendezvous point, CHS-2 drove one of the vehicles. Harris sat in the seat behind him, repeatedly loading and unloading a semiautomatic pistol before pointing it at CHS-2’s head leading to an angry exchange of words.130 When Fox and his colleagues arrived to make a “good faith” payment for the equipment, the FBI arrested them.131 Fox had a meager $275 on him when detained.132
As it prepared to make the arrests, the FBI appears to have been concerned about how some in the wider Boogaloo milieu would react. On October 2, 2020, five days prior to the arrest of those now accused of plotting to kidnap Governor Whitmer, FBI agents had attempted to detain a man called Eric Allport on firearms charges. He was killed in the subsequent shootout in the parking lot of a Madison Heights restaurant. Allport had a violent past, having previously served an 11-year prison sentence for shooting at two police officers. Growing up, he and his family had lived next door to, and been friends with, Randy Weaver whose home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, was subject to an 11-day siege by the FBI that ended in the death of Weaver’s wife and son and a deputy U.S. Marshall in 1992.133 Following his death, Boogaloo adherents hailed Allport as a hero online. Allport’s own Instagram account, since deleted, had included references to the Boogaloo movement, too. He had also posted memes on Facebook including vague threats about what would happen if someone tried to take his weapons.134
While Allport was unconnected to the kidnap plot, The Detroit Free Press, quoting unnamed sources, reported that the FBI had tried to arrest him after becoming aware of his “threatening comments” about the police on social media. Fearing that the arrest of Governor Whitmer’s would-be kidnappers “was just the kind of event that may set Allport off,” according to The Detroit Free Press, “The FBI figured it would have Allport behind bars by the time they arrested the kidnapping suspects and he couldn’t hurt any police officers.”135
The Michigan Plot, January 6, and the Evolution of Domestic Violent Extremism
In hindsight, the storming of the Capitol building in Lansing, which spurred the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer, has been interpreted as a prelude to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, during which four people died.t One journalist present reported having heard at least three different rioters express a desire to execute then Vice President Pence.136 In another echo of the Wolverine Watchmen’s plan to kidnap Whitmer, several of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol building also appeared prepared to take hostages.137
Asked for her thoughts on the violence in the U.S. Capitol, Governor Whitmer saw clear parallels between it and the entry of armed protestors into the Michigan statehouse in April 2020:
I think the worst part is, though, how many people were saying they can’t believe this can happen in the United States of America? All I can think was – were they not paying attention to what happened eight months ago?138
To date, 529 people have been charged federally in relation to the U.S. Capitol insurrection.139 The majority of the Trump supporters involved in storming the U.S. Capitol were unconnected with the organized far-right, though there is evidence of “militant networks, organized clusters, and inspired believers” taking part.140 FBI Director Wray testified that “almost none” of the 500 people charged with participating in the attack had previously been under FBI investigation.141
Among those charged, however, were notable clusters of arrestees from the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Three Percenters, the latter group, as noted above, being one with which several of the Wolverine Watchmen had identified.142 In June 2021, six alleged Three Percenters were subsequently indicted on conspiracy charges in relation to the assault on the U.S. Capitol.143 In the wake of the attack, there have been indications that despite the fissiparous nature of the extreme far-right, many of these groups, emboldened by the violence, were, online at least, increasingly cohering around the objective of overthrowing the prevailing political order.144
Highlighting the diffuse geographical distribution of arrestees, at least eight of those arrested for their role in the January 6 violence hailed from Michigan.145 Also among those who stormed the U.S. Capitol was an individual who a photographer had captured yelling at police officers during the anti-lockdown protest in Lansing in April 2020 when armed protestors, including several of those subsequently arrested for plotting to kidnap Whitmer, entered the statehouse building and intimidated lawmakers. This image went viral, helping to define that event visually.146 Another of those subsequently arrested (for assaulting a police officer during the January 6 riot) was a New York man who had searched online for “Gretchen Whitmer” together with the location of gun stores in the days prior to the U.S. Capitol insurrection,147 highlighting the extent of the animosity among these circles toward her. On January 6, 2021, a peaceful “Stop the Steal” rally took place in Lansing, though a bomb threat saw the Michigan State Capitol building closed for several hours the following day.148 u
The Michigan prosecutors have stated they will be recharging the cases where there were hung juries. The whole analysis is here, pretty interesting and blows holes in any talk of FBI overreach.
https://ctc.usma.edu/the-conspiracy-to- ... n-whitmer/