Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Michigan Won’t Let FBI-Backed, Legally Fraught Whitmer Kidnapping Case Die

Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy University Of Michigan/Creative Commons/Flickr

Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel promised on Tuesday to appeal an “outrageous” ruling that scrapped a man’s convictions over a kidnapping plot against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The state was wrong to prosecute Joseph Morrison on terrorism-related charges for leading “Wolverine Watchmen,” the armed anti-government group linked to the 2020 conspiracy, Michigan’s appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision brings another loss for the government in the years-long state and federal case after five other defendants were acquitted, according to multiple reports.

“This ruling is completely and irredeemably nonsensical, outrageous and irresponsible,” Nessel said about Morrison’s victory. “For the panel to declare that kidnapping is not a violent felony strains all legal credibility and insults the intelligence of every person in this State. The Court twists itself into a knot using legal and linguistic gymnastics in order to liberate dangerous criminals using convoluted definitions of the crimes upon which they were convicted.”

The FBI made headlines in 2020 by accusing the Wolverine Watchmen of plotting to take Whitmer from her home and overthrow her government. The case began to raise eyebrows in court after details emerged that the investigation involved at least 12 FBI informants, including undercover operatives attending meetings with defendants and helping them form their plan.

Jurors convicted Morrison in 2022 of gang membership, material support for terrorist acts and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony as a self-described commander of the Wolverine Watchmen. Appeals judges agreed with his legal team that kidnapping is not a “violent felony” that meets the state’s legal definition of terrorism, removing the basis for all his convictions.

Jurors in the case acquitted defendants Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta in 2022 and Eric Molitor, William Null and Michael Null in 2023 after the defense argued that the government manufactured the criminal conspiracy, multiple outlets reported. A jury reportedly deadlocked in the first federal trial of Wolverine Watchmen ringleader Adam Fox and Barry Croft in 2022, but a second jury found them guilty of conspiracy and weapons charges and a U.S. appeals court upheld the verdicts.

The case is too important to lay the matter to rest even after Tuesday’s ruling, Nessel said.

“That this panel of judges found a way to excuse from these crimes their foundation in violence irresponsibly and unfathomably diminishes and whitewashes the crimes of Joseph Morrison and his many codefendants,” the attorney general said. “It sends a deeply dangerous message, in a fraught and perilous time.”

“My office will not allow this to stand,” she continued. “We will not downplay violent terrorism, we will not accept violent threats against our elected leaders, and we will not abide the arbitrary defanging of the criminal statutes that preserve public safety and order in the State of Michigan. To restore sanity, protect our public servants, and uphold the rule of law, we are appealing this preposterous decision.”