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EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Seeks response from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on whether the FBI “caught” defendants in Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s kidnapping plan, and whether the high-profile charges in Michigan were politically motivated to hurt former President Trump before the 2020 presidential election .
Greene on Wednesday sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray supporting the defense attorney’s allegations that four defendants accused of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer were controlled by undercover FBI agents and informants.
“The American people deserve a transparent judicial system and law enforcement that keeps them safe, does not catch them in serious criminal activity to influence the outcome of a democratic election,” Greene and 11 other GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter received by Fox News . Digital.
Following a 20-day trial, two of the four men were acquitted on April 8 of a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer. Juries could not reach a verdict on the charges against two other defendants, resulting in a lawsuit. Their lawyers claimed they had been caught, and the federal judge in the case allowed jurors to consider whether the FBI was involved in the banned practice of luring or tricking individuals into committing crimes.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Speaks as President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint congressional convention at the Capitol in Washington on March 1, 2022.
(AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite, Pool, File)
Prosecutors tried to show that the defendants talked about the kidnapping plot before the FBI sting, while one defendant posted a video that said, “We have to use brutal force against the government” in 2019, months before he met any agents or informants. In May 2020, another defendant spoke of “hanging” the governor.
MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER kidnapping plot: 2 MEN RELEASED, JURY BECOME BECAUSE 2 OTHERS
Spokesmen for both the FBI and the Department of Justice confirmed receipt of the GOP letter, but declined to comment further.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Greene tried to establish a connection between the FBI, which “captured” the Whitmer defendants, and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. She questioned whether the FBI had any involvement or knowledge of those who broke into the Capitol and disrupted the affairs of Parliament and the Senate to confirm President Biden’s election college victory.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attends an event with President Joe Biden in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on March 9, 2022 in Washington.
(AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
“The comparison of the two incidents, that’s what most people are really worried about – between Governor Whitmer and the whole conspiracy that seems to be completely possibly led by the FBI, which is scary, and the comparison of what that happened on January 6, “Greene said.
In the letter, lawmakers ask Garland why the FBI “paid confidential informants and special agents with a history of unethical behavior to capture U.S. citizens in a conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and they did the same all the time up to the January 6 protest. 2021 at the US Capitol? “
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The letter comes as Parliament this week votes on HR 350, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which aims to provide the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with more tools and resources to monitor, investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism cases and to to eradicate neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.
DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the biggest terrorist threat is violent extremism in the home.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on the Department of Homeland Security’s budget request on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, on April 27, 2022.
(Stefani Reynolds / AFP)
Greene says she does not trust the people responsible for the FBI and DOJ and worries about what they will do with more authority to go after them, “they have considered them domestic terrorists – yet the FBI could have been involved in some way [in] basically creating domestic terrorism. “
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She said she did not want to see ordinary Americans “talked into doing things that they would hopefully never do in the first place.”
The letter was also signed by Republican reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia and Mary Miller of Illinois.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.