Michigan conspirators planned to storm capitol, conduct livestream executions, lock legislators inside and burn building down
'A Michigan attorney general filing states the plotters planned “to take hostages, execute tyrants and have it televised.”'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
According to a legal brief recently filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the fourteen militiamen who were arrested in October for plotting to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also planned to storm the capitol, capture hostages, live stream a horrific series of executions, and target the entire elected state leadership and members of the state legislature.
The revelations come as Michigan judges have quietly released three of the plotters, including Wolverine Watchmen cofounder Pete Musico.
The attorney general’s office wrote: “Plan A consisted of recruiting 200 men and then storm the Capitol building in Lansing while Congress was in session. [By congress, the plotters evidently meant the state legislature]. They were to take hostages, execute tyrants and have it televised. It would take about one week and that no one is coming out alive.”
The brief reads, “The secondary plan was to storm the Capitol building in Lansing when Congress was in session. They would then lock the entrances/exits to the structure. They would then set the building on fire.”
As of the time of this writing, no national media outlet has reported these details, and the Democratic Party has maintained total silence beyond the state attorney general herself.
According to prosecutors, the conspirators also planned to research the residential addresses of a number of unnamed political figures and execute them at their homes.
Officials also released additional details of the military training conducted by the plotters, who wrote a schedule for one training session held in Wisconsin on June 14 on the property of a leading member of the fascist Oath Keepers organization there. According to the schedule, the plotters planned to address “basic fundamentals for the new members,” “driver down situation,” “taking a (possible) hostile vehicle over,” “planned ambushes,” “L shape ambush” and “when is the right time to screen for a medic?”
The Wolverine Watchmen internally described themselves as a Boogaloo group. According to a private Facebook page used by the group, their purpose was “to network and assemble and recruit like-minded individuals.” They used anti-lockdown demonstrations sponsored by Republican state legislators and promoted by Trump to discuss their plans and recruit new forces.
The Attorney General’s office made these arguments in order to oppose a bond request by Pete Musico, the cofounder of the Wolverine Militia. But after reviewing this evidence, Michael Klaeren granted bond at an estimated $10,000, allowing Musico to walk out of jail. Klaeren had previously reduced Musico’s bond from $10 million.
On Wednesday, prosecutors also announced that 38-year-old Shawn Fix was released on bond in Antrim County, Michigan Tuesday. Weeks ago, Wisconsin resident Brian Higgins was released from bail by county judge Todd Hepler after posting $10,000 in cash, well below the $1 million requested by the local district attorney’s office.
These figures and the bail terms are lenient given the gravity of the crimes for which the conspirators stand accused.
Musico was merely ordered to wear an ankle monitor, while Higgins was told he could not leave the state of Wisconsin. The plotters will be monitored by friendly police officers, including many who belong to extreme right-wing groups that have praised the plotters and defended their actions as lawful.
MilitiaWatch founder Hampton Stall, who researches far-right groups and maintains a database of their activity, told the World Socialist Web Site: “There’s often a lot of big talk among militia groups that can be dismissed as idle threats, but the specificity and extremely high level of violence included in the fantasies documented in the attorney general’s brief is a massive red flag, especially given how active this core of actors had been.”
Stall said the October arrests of 14 militiamen “have not slowed recruitment among militia groups I track, and it seems that leading up to the election recruitment has only continued to rise, both among leaders advertising their groups and new recruits seeking to connect to armed movements.”
Far-right networks continue to organize throughout the country in response to Trump’s baseless claims that Biden’s victory was only the product of electoral fraud.
Media Matters reported Thursday that fascist Oath Keeper leader Steven Rhodes “says he has men stationed outside of DC ready to engage in violence on Trump’s order.” Rhodes told fascist online personality Alex Jones that “We’ll also be on the outside of D.C., armed, prepared to go in, if the president calls us up.”
Rhodes made these comments on a YouTube program dedicated to promoting this weekend’s planned pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” demonstrations aimed at overturning the result of the presidential election won by Joe Biden. Small demonstrations took place last weekend in various states and were far outnumbered by demonstrations celebrating Trump’s defeat.
The presence of the Proud Boys at these demonstrations came after their leader Enrique Tarrio said, “We’re rolling out. Standby order has been rescinded”—a reference to Trump’s statement at the first presidential debate that the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by.”
At one far-right rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania last weekend, armed Proud Boys gathered with signs that said, “Standing Back and Standing By For My President” and “Free Kyle,” a reference to Kyle Rittenhouse, the fascist who murdered two people protesting police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August. The Harrisburg demonstration was held at the state capitol building and Republican state legislators were pictured visiting and supporting the armed fascist demonstrators.
Pennsylvania and Michigan are two of four battleground states with a Republican legislature and Democratic governor, where Trump has focused on appeals to elect alternate slates of electors, overriding the popular vote. Joe Biden won in Michigan by roughly 150,000 votes, and in Pennsylvania by over 50,000 votes.
Even though the evidence points to a far broader assault on Democratic officials and state legislators, the Democratic Party has also remained completely silent on the assault, effectively silencing the state attorney general’s office and its warnings that the plotters should not be released from jail. The Democrats greatest fear is that informing the public of the plans to carry out mass executions of elected officials will provoke mass opposition to Trump’s attempt to override the election by means of violence and police repression.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's brief cannot be ignored and its censor must end. This must be faced, and those who will not do so cannot lead.
always be on the lookout for gadsden, nazi, 3%, confederate, and trump stickers and flags. it's important to catch these teabag terrorists while they're in their vehicles and can't swing their AR's around without shooting each other. /s
Remember how people refused to take the Trump threat seriously until Trump happened?
I was thinking on the lines of what social and class conditions give rise to such tendencies.
If we don't know what fascism is or how to put it down, where do you suppose this will go?
While living in Germany the last few years, our German neighbors wanted to know "What the hell is wrong with Americans?" They identified Trump and his followers with how Hitler came to power, and couldn't see how American's weren't seeing the same thing. To try to explain the same to a Trump supports is truly an exercise in futility.
Leon Trotsky addressed this. The problem is not that the US working class will not fight, but that it had never developed a united, independent movement of the working class against authoritarianism. That analysis remains correct to this very hour.
In answer, the struggle must be taken FROM \the hands of the Capitalist parties and be resolved by the direct intervention of the 295,200,000 people who are the US working [proletarian] class.
Bail was reduced from $1million to $10,000. That certainly seems out of line considering the serious nature of the charges.
This is only one group of nut cases. There are hundreds in the US. ''Time to wake up people''.
Precisely.
wow....just wow
And therein lies my reply to your query on the other thread --what do I mean by falling. The US has been failing and falling for many decades. Especially in the economic sector, we are failing. As a case in point, it simply is not possible for the US to continue owing trillions and NOT have this destabilize the global economy. Increasingly pressed in that sector, the US ruling class has tried to offset economic decline with an aggressive foreign policy. War has been standing policy for three decades. We now have an entire generation of adults who do not recall a time when the US was NOT involved in some or another war.
It is imperative to understand the sociio-political components underlying this TRAJECTORY do NOT come out of nowhere, and they absolutely will not simply dissipate because the Michigan plot was discovered.
The assurances of some that 'all is well,' that 'the republic is strong,' and 'noting is so bad that a good election can't fix' are a potentially disastrous mistake. These things and the conditions which give rise to them are not traits of strong, healthy regimes. The decision of the Democrat Party with the guilty complicity of the media NOT to address these matters and alert the population to this danger are utterly reprehensible. Glad that the World Socialist Web Site got this scoop.
In my 58 years on this rock, there weren't all that many years that I can remember when we weren't at war.
What do you suggest we do? Can we save our democracy? Do you see us heading towards some sort of authoritarianistic society?
Do you see us heading towards some sort of authoritarianistic society?
For now we dodged that bullet with the election of Biden... The key is that the voters stay engaged, informed and vote to preserve the constitution.
Yes, Biden will not lead us down that road but will people rise up and revolt because they are unhappy with the situation?
'Do you see us heading towards some sort of authoritarianistic society?'
Yes.
'Can we save our democracy?'
With naught remaining but a few, thread-bare trappings, it is not a question of 'saving' our 'democracy' so much as establishing democracy. Can we do that? We have no choice.
'What do you suggest we do?'
We must turn to the one entity with the social power capable of stopping the drive to authoritarianism. This requires 1] breaking with both Capitalist parties, and 2] uniting the working class behind a program that corrects the social conditions which foster fascism. That is the program of the Socialist Equality Party.
'For now we dodged that bullet with the election of Biden...'
I can't share this optimism. Had the Democrat Party the capacity to fight fascism, this movement would not have arisen in the first place. The existence of a distinctively 'American' form of right-wing, fascistic authoritarianism is a devastating exposure and critique of the Biden party.
Fascism has been depicted in various ways. The far right extremists responsible for this attempted coup are fond of equating it with socialism. Fascism is Capitalism in crisis. Unless this crisis is addressed, the US fascist movement will draw more and more adherents from the demoralized petty-bourgeoisie section of the ruling class. If the coup planned and orchestrated from the White House is not successful, Biden's very attempt at 'unity' will be used to shift an already right-wing Democrat Party still further to the right. This further compromises the response to fascism by an already ineffectual Democrat Party.
If the US 'reichadistration' attempts to overrule the election results, there will be an outpouring of resistance in every city in the union. The 60s will not even begin to compare with it.
These are the heads that should be on pikes.