JACKSON, Mich. — A confidential FBI informant is testifying Friday in a Jackson County courthouse about being embedded for months alongside leaders of a group accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The informant’s identity is being concealed in court for his safety. Introduced only as “Dan,” an online video feed of Friday's hearing was cut off during his testimony so court observers only could hear him.
Dan described learning of the group — known as the Wolverine Watchmen — through a Facebook algorithm that he believed made the suggestion based on his interactions with other Facebook pages that support the Second Amendment and firearms training.
“I was scrolling through Facebook one day and they popped up as a suggestion post,” Dan said. “I clicked on the page and it had a few questions to answer.”
After answering the questions satisfactorily, Dan, an Army veteran who described himself as a Libertarian, was admitted into the group and told to download an encrypted messaging app called Wire so he could communicate in secret with other members. The app prohibited screenshots and would periodically delete all messages.
Dan's acceptance into group’s Facebook page was the beginning of his journey as a confidential FBI “human source” that took him to protests at the state Capitol and to rural training exercises with members of the group who expressed a desire to hurt and kill law enforcement officers and politicians. Dan testified he sometimes wore a wire and feared for his safety, eventually deciding to sell his house when his address became known.
Dan and the group's members also attended what he described as a Black Lives Matter protest in Detroit. The group went to the protest envisioning a possible gunfight with police if pepper spray was used on protesters, he testified. The group waited in a parking lot but eventually left the protest without incident.
Dan told a friend in law enforcement about the group shortly after learning of its desires to harm police officers. The FBI then approached him and he agreed to cooperate, he testified, adding that he did not ask for money.
As an FBI source, Dan became familiar with the three defendants in court Friday on charges they supported a plot to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat.
Pete Musico, 43, his son-in-law, Joseph Morrison, 26, and Paul Bellar, 22, are at Jackson County’s 12th District Court Friday for day three of their preliminary examination.
The men are just three of the 14 men said to have plotted to target Whitmer over her restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Six of the 14 men were charged federally, and eight were charged at the state level over two counties.
The hearing is ongoing.
Both of the first two days, FBI Special Agent Henrik Impola delved into his investigation of the Wolverine Watchmen militia, which he described as a "terrorist" organization and an anarchist militia group bent on political violence.
