DETROIT — Three men charged with supporting others in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were slated to try to get their cases tossed Monday, but the agenda took a turn when a defense attorney raised concerns with one of the FBI agents in the case.
Pete Musico, 44; his son-in-law, Joseph Morrison, 27, and Paul Bellar, 23, appeared Monday morning in Jackson County's 4th Circuit Court to argue - among a slew of motions — their stance that they were entrapped by the FBI and an informant. Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office appeared seeking to add the charge of making a threat of terrorism to the men's cases - one a lower court judge previously threw out.
However, Bellar's attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, requested that the entrapment motion be pushed back, citing news that federal prosecutors said in a filing Friday that they don't intend to call FBI Special Agent Henrik Impola to testify in their portion of the case; 14 men total are charged across the state and federal level.
Federal prosecutors, in the filing, ask that the defense attorneys in the federal matter be kept from plans to introduce at trial allegations by an attorney in an unrelated case that Impola committed perjury. Federal prosecutors say the allegations are unfounded.
But Kirkpatrick on Monday raised alarms that Impola is key to the entrapment case, having directed an informant, Dan, in the men's Wolverine Watchmen group ahead of the men's arrests.
Kirkpatrick asked the judge for more time to investigate the claim, as it could be crucial to the entrapment matter and that without further information, he would be at a disadvantage to question Impola on the stand Monday.
"I don't know what to ask the agent other than (to raise) I know, I am aware," Kirkpatrick said.
Assistant Attorney General Sunita Doddamani argued against the delay on a few levels, namely that the allegations against Impola were known in March, but also because the parties were ready to go and defense attorney actions in the federal matter shouldn't impact the case on the local level.
"This is an allegation from a case that was, I think, 2015, judge, and the same attorney's filed the same allegation every single year since," she said. "And at this point, judge, they have exactly what we have, which is an allegation of perjury, where no investigation has been concluded, no finding has been made," she said.
Further information on the allegation was not immediately available. Ultimately, Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson chose to push the entrapment motion arguments to February, and after trying to make the AG's office turn over the FBI investigation, Kirkpatrick said he would subpoena the details.
Up next in the spree of motions slated for Monday was a motion to quash the bindover of the cases from district court to circuit court - a motion to find that there wasn't probable cause to do so.
On that account, Wilson responded, finding the bindover was proper.
The three aren't accused of attempting to carry out the kidnapping, but face charges of providing material support to a terrorist act, charges connected to gang membership, and charges of carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Musico and Morrison are accused of allowing trainings on the Munith property where they lived, for those accused of direct ties to the plot. Officials have argued all three men discussed the kidnapping.
Except for the weapons charge, each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison upon conviction. The weapons charge is punishable by two years in prison upon conviction for a first offense.
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(Staff writer Tresa Baldas contributed to this report.)
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