FBI Agents’ Misconduct Won’t Be Considered in Whitmer Kidnap Case, Judge Rules

This photo combo shows from top left, Kaleb Franks, Brandon Caserta, Adam Dean Fox, and bottom left, Daniel Harris, Barry Croft, and Ty Garbin. A federal grand jury has charged six men with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in what investigators say was a plot by anti-government extremists angry over her policies to prevent spread of the coronavirus. An indictment released Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, by U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge levied the charge against Adam Dean Fox, Barry Gordon Croft Jr., Ty Gerard Garbin, Kaleb James Franks, Daniel Joseph Harris and Brandon Michael-Ray Caserta. Kent County Sheriff via AP File

The misconduct of three FBI agents who investigated the alleged Michigan governor kidnapping plot won’t be used as evidence in court, a U.S. district judge has ruled.

With their March 8 trial fast approaching, defendants Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta filed numerous motions in recent weeks to buttress their argument that the FBI entrapped them in a scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But the defendants faced a severe blow to their case when U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker made a Feb. 2 order largely siding with government.