Judging Freedom - Why Can the Feds Bribe a Witness? 2nd Militia Group Member pleads guilty in plot to kidnap MI Gov

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Second Wolverine Watchmen militia group member pleads guilty in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in plea deal: He will testify they were NOT set up by FBISee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello there everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here judging freedom. Today is Tuesday, January 8th. It's about 1.40 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. And we learned late last night that one of the Michigan Wolverines is going to plead guilty. No, this is not an athletic team. This is the so-called militia, which the government says was planning and plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, who, along with Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, imposed the harshest, most draconian lockdown rules, all unlawful and all unconstitutional, because in our system, governors can't write laws and make rules. They can only enforce laws and

enforce rules that have been made by the legislature or in the case of rules by administrative agencies. Anyway, the government arrested 10 people in this so-called plot to kidnap her. There were 18 people involved in the plot. Eight of them were undercover agents, either FBI agents working undercover or cooperating witnesses whose job it was to entrap the others. Why is this newsworthy? Because we've known this for a while. It's newsworthy because one of them late last night agreed to plead guilty. And he not only agreed to plead guilty, he agreed to testify against his former colleagues in the Michigan Wolverines, which is what they did call themselves. And he told the government what he'll say. And of course, the government negotiated with his

lawyers so that he'll say what the government wants him to say and wants to hear. And what he's going to say is that there was no entrapment. We did this of our own free will. I now know who the undercover people were, and they didn't force me. They didn't talk me into it. We all did this because we wanted to kidnap her. Well, what the heck is that? That's a bribe. The government is giving him something of value, a reduction in the charges against him and a reduction in the potential jail time to which he's exposed in return for tailoring his testimony to meet the government's needs. Well, if his lawyers went to one of the other conspirators and said, we'll give you something

of value if you give us the testimony we want, the lawyers would be indicted for attempted perjury or attempted causing someone to commit perjury. Why is it that the government can get away with this? Now, look, I'm not naive. This has been going on for generations. The government gives people deals, and in return for those deals, they're usually co-defendants. These people testify in the way the government wants. Sometimes this works for the government. Most of the time it does. The type of arguments that I'm making, defense counsel

can make a trial. You entered into a deal with the government. The government gave you something of value in return for your testimony. Your testimony is tailored to what the government wants you to say, because if you don't say what the government wants you to say, you're not going to get the deal that the government promised to give you. That type of cross-examination is permitted. But the court should throw these cases out. Because when the government bribes a witness, the witness is inherently unworthy of belief,

and the government is unworthy of being prosecutors. Because bribery is a federal crime. So the same people that are prosecuting someone for conspiracy to kidnap should be a state crime. But all these big cases are federal these days. The same government that is prosecuting these people for conspiracy to kidnap is itself engaging in a felony when it bribes a witness. We'll see where this goes. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.