Chronicles from the FBI

Guest Post by Skinny

No longer content to investigate crimes, The FBI now sets out to create them.

 Let me start with the obligatory that most FBI agents have a difficult job and do it to the best of their ability, and the perform at an exceedingly high level blah,blah, blah.  However, the job of investigating crimes, especially those that involve conspiracies, is difficult and excruciatingly tedious.  Wouldn’t it be easier just to create the crime, then solve it at the same time?  If you are an ambitious sort like Steve D’Antuono, toiling away in a remote FBI office in the sticks of Michigan while pining for a plum assignment in the in the Emarald City, the answer is, of course.  Welcome to the new FBI.  The most overfunded steaming pile of bureaucracy on the planet.  Anything resembling Efrem Zimbalist Jr is coincidental.

Dating back to its founding, FBI has made use of undercover agents and confidential informants to infiltrate criminal organizations.  It makes sense since a conspiracy case cannot be built unless there is access to the criminals.  This is how cases against the Mafia, Hell’s Angel’s and other known criminal organizations were constructed.  When the FBI’s mission was to solve crime, the practice was laudable.  Now that the FBI is the enforcement arm of the Democrat Party, the practice is now purely a political weapon.

The practice is: find an individual with a criminal past, threaten him with incarceration unless he infiltrates an organization with unfavorable (i.e. pro Second Amendment or pro Trump) political ideas, ply him with cash while encouraging him to promote conspiracy ideas to his new found friends.  Slowly bring to a boil while drawing  up the affidavits and indictments, then spring it at its most politically advantageous opportunity.  Another feature is that the people working on behalf of the Feds equal or outnumber the actual conspirators.

The events leading up to January 6, 2020, provide a classic example of the new politicized FBI.  The lead indictment against Thomas Caldwell, Donovan Crowl , and Jessica Watkins mentions three unidentified individuals, Person 1, Person 2, and Person 3.  This means that half of the conspiracy was in the employ of the feds.  The indictment also states that the three conspirators were members of the Oath Keepers.  The indictment states that “The Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.” ⁽¹⁾ Person 1 was the leader of the Oath Keepers so the analogy would be John Gotti informing on a local loan shark.

Instead of rounding up the little fish to catch the big fish, the big fish was used to catch the little fish.  A sort of conspiracy in reverse.  Another troubling aspect of this peculiar law enforcement is that the FBI has access to the plot well in advance yet does nothing to stop it.  Could it be that perchance the FBI want the criminal activity to take place because it would be harmful to an about to be Ex-President?  Well, that’s just conspiracy talk.  Keep it up and we will knock you off Twitter.

To put the government’s actions on January 6 into context it is necessary to look back at the shenanigans that went on in Michigan in 2020.  To refresh your memory, Michigan in FBI lore, was the idiotic, doomed to fail scheme to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home near Lake Michigan.  The plot was hatched by the notorious Gang of Six led by the evil genius Adam FOX.

Proper reporting on conspiracies requires that the last name be listed in all caps to make the conspirators appear more sinister. Fox, er FOX was joined by his neighbors Ty GARBIN, Daniel HARRIS, Brandon CASERTA, and Kaleb FRANKS.  Every good right-wing conspiracy requires at least one Kaleb.  The group was rounded out by the Delaware native, Barry CROFT.  How Joe Biden’s neighbor wandered into this merry band is unexplained.  It is also unexplained why this guy who could not light a firecracker with a box of matches was somehow considered an explosives expert. But more on that later.

The six had big plans.  Their original idea was to storm the Michigan State Capitol and take hostages including the Governor.  One problem, it is not easy to storm a Capitol with only 6 people, even if one is from Delaware.  The team figured they would need at least 200 people to pull off the plot.  Luckily, by the time they held their first informational meeting on June 6,2020 in Dublin , Ohio, their ranks had swelled to 13.  Still far short of the 200 needed but certainly moving in the right direction.

Unfortunately for the plotters, most of the new members were undercover FBI agents or confidential informants.  In FBI parlance, agents are referred to as UCE, or Undercover Employees.  Informants are known as CHS, or Confidential Human Sources, which is not to be confused with Confidential Inhuman sources which the FBI is still developing.  The informational session was witnessed by CHS-1 who was paid $8600 for “expenses.”  My guess is he brought the beer and sandwiches and used the balance for a new refrigerator.  Joe Biden would define this as infrastructure.

The plot was hatching and our heroes, swelled by the ranks of UCEs and CHSs moved their operation to Grand Rapids.  Well, not exactly by choice.  It appears that mastermind Adam Fox had been tossed out by his girlfriend and so facing homelessness, moved into the basement of a vacuum repair shop owned by a friend named Brian Titus.  The elaborate hideout, shared with his 2 dogs and a multitude of boxes containing vacuum parts became the new base of operation.

Still needing more recruits Fox was introduced to a Michigan militia group that was previously infiltrated by another informant, this one known as CHS-2.   CHS-2 described Fox’s attempt to garner 200 men during a June 14, 2020, call, and was also there on June 20, which had John Bolton been invited, would be described as “The Room Where It Happened.”  John Bolton, to the best of our knowledge was not invited, so it was left to the FBI to describe the scene.

On June 20, 2020, FOX, GARBIN, and several other individuals, including CHS-2, met at FOX’s business in Grand Rapids. As part of FOX’s operational security, the attendees met in the basement of the shop, which was accessed through a trap door hidden under a rug on the main floor. FOX collected all of (sic) their cellular phones in a box and carried them upstairs to prevent any monitoring. CHS-2 was wearing a recording device, however, and captured the audio from the meeting. ⁽²⁾

It was nothing of the sort.  First, Fox did not have a pot to piss in let alone own a business.  Second the basement was simply a storage room accessed by Bessler stairs that come up through a door in the floor.  Any business would cover the door with an area rug.  Language matters.  Covering a hatch is no way as sinister sounding as hiding a trap door under a rug.  But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?  Besides the FBI paid CH-2 $14,800 which means the group had graduated from swilling 16-ounce PBR’s in Ohio to sipping refined Michigan craft brews in Grand Rapids.  Likewise, the ham sandwiches on white bread were now filet mignon on baguettes.  It’s a fair guess that CHS-2 also helped himself to a new set of snow tires.  Infrastructure takes many forms.

Moving along the timeline, the affidavit quotes a June 25 live Facebook stream where Fox referred to Governor Whitmer as “this tyrant bitch.”  Certainly not the language the good people of The Burning Platform are accustomed to, but not necessarily an inaccurate description and certainly not illegal.  He further went on to say, “I don’t know boys, we gotta do something, you guys link with me on our other location system, give me some ideas of what we can do.”  If this is criminal conspiracy talk, every Zoom call meeting in America this past year has been a criminal conspiracy.

On June 28^th the 4 of the 5 Michigan based conspirators Fox, Garbin, Caserta and Franks, along with CHS-2 and magically Fox’s girlfriend were in Munith, Michigan for a tactical training exercise.  Nothing rekindles the old flame like a tactical training exercise. Maybe love really does conquer all.  It must have worked, because two weeks later the group was at it again, this time in Cambria, Wisconsin.  By this time Barry Croft had joined the group.  At this session the group, with Croft taking the lead, tried their hand at constructing 2 improvised explosive devices or IEDs.  As you may have guessed, the devices failed to cooperate, but at least no one came away from the affair with the nickname “Hook.”

On July 18, the gang was back in the Ohio love nest.  It is a fair guess that a shipment of vacuum parts did not leave ample room for conspirators, undercover agents and informants to fit in the storage room. Alas, the attack on the Capitol was souring.  Seeing that the FBI was never going to deliver the necessary 200 UCEs and CHSs to storm the Capitol, the group decided on a more modest, yet equally idiotic goal; kidnap the Governor from her vacation home.

Although this plan would not require 200 brave Spartans it would still require more assistance from the Feds.  Always willing to help, the FBI procured for the group an explosives expert, who Fox referred to as the “Baker,” the group’s head of transportation, and their head of security.  These three, together with CHS-2 meant that 4 of the top 5 plotters were on the government payroll with only Adam Fox left out of the fun.

Throughout the summer the group performed surveillance on the vacation home.  On the weekend of September 10-12, 2020, the group held another training exercise in Luther, Michigan and combined it with a surveillance operation.  During training, Croft once again attempting to ply his craft at IED construction.

He opened his “Chemistry Set” and combined commercial fireworks, additional black powder, and pennies.  He wrapped the contraption in electrical tape and detonated it to see if it would be effective.  The affidavit does not provide an answer, but subsequent events suggest it was a flop.  On the plus side, Croft is not known as “Three Finger Barry.”   The affidavit is also silent as to whether CHS-2 provided the pennies and if he was reimbursed by the FBI for this expense.

On September 12, the group took the 1 & ½ hour trip from Luther to the Governor’s summer cottage in Birch Lake. The FBI affidavit reads thus:

FOX, CROFT, CHS-2, a UCE, and an individual from Wisconsin…

Whoa!  Stop right there.  Everybody knows the first rule to follow when concocting a ridiculously insane plot is, never trust an “Individual from Wisconsin.”  Not only that, but it is also an insult to the Badger State.   While the other entrappers get cool code names like CHS-2 or UCE, this schlub is just some random guy who wandered across the Upper Peninsula.  Regardless the affidavit continues:

traveled in the first vehicle. While in the vehicle, CROFT and FOX discussed detonating explosive devices to divert police from the area of the vacation home. They stopped at the M-31 highway bridge on the way, where FOX and the UCE inspected the underside of the bridge for places to seat an explosive charge. FOX took a picture of the bridge’s support structure, which he later shared with CHS-2 in their encrypted chat. From there, they drove to a public boat launch across the lake from the vacation home to watch for the other cars in their group. [FBI]

(2 – Paragraph 31)

Other than allowing the opportunity for a cheap shot at Wisconsin, this passage is important for another reason that will be discussed below.

Back to the story.  The next morning the FBI UCE posing as the “Baker” informed Fox that the explosives necessary to blow the bridge would cost $4,000.  What about Barry’s chemistry set?  Why pay 4 grand when Croft can make one for the cost of the pennies inside?

The obvious answer is he could not.  The more obvious answer is the whole gang could not.  This was a group of morons being led by morons aided and abetted by the most loathsome overfunded pile of steaming bureaucracy on the planet.

On October 2, 2020, the final conversation between Fox and CHS-2 was recorded.  Fox confirmed he bought a taser.  Thankfully, it was never used.  Otherwise, Adam would have certainly shot thousands of volts through himself.  They also discussed meeting the UCE on October 7 to buy the explosives.  It was at the October 7 rendezvous that the 6 were arrested.  7 others were arrested separately.  At the time of the arrest, Fox had just $275 on him so he was a little short of the $4,000 quoted to procure the explosives.  Although I am not an expert on the kidnapping of sitting governors, I do know that when you are dealing with a hairbrained plot with zero chance of success, it’s a good idea to get your cash up front.  Apparently, the FBI is the only place explosives can be purchased on the installment plan.

Getting back to the “Individual from Wisconsin” it turns out his name was Steve Robeson. The reason we know this is because Robeson outed himself in a live video chat in November.  “That’s me, admitted Robeson, “I’m the individual from Wisconsin.” ⁽⁵⁾  But he was more than an “Individual.”  He was there at the inception of the plot.  He booked and paid for the hotel rooms in Grand Rapids that the conspirators used for the June 20 meeting in the basement of the vacuum store.  Robeson has been an FBI informant for more that 35 years dating back to 1985.  Guess what that gets you?  That one utternce got him indicted on a weapons charge which they had been holding over his head for who knows how long.    Now that he is outed and of no use to the Bureau, they plan to lock him up for 10 years.

Clearly, these individuals were co-conspirators and needed to be taken down, but why wait until October to make the arrests?  The indictment is clear that a conspiracy was formed as early as June and could have been shut down then.  Waiting this long only jeopardizes the agents and the informants.  What if the informants were discovered?  This story would have been entirely different.

Instead of a hairbrained plot being uncovered, we would be talking about one or more murders.  It points to the FBI as being more interested in creating criminal theatre than solving or stopping crimes.  Also, I’m sure it was purely coincidental that the plot was unveiled 4 weeks before the election.  As long as the affidavit reads like a Le Carre novel and it undermines Donald Trump, the safety of the informants is not part of the equation.

As previously mentioned, Steve D’Antuono ran the FBI’s Detroit field office that ran this operation.  D’Antuono has since been promoted and is now the assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office.  Although this may sound like a job Dwight Schrute from the “Office” would aspire to, in FBI circles it is a big deal.  Take a wild guess at what investigation D’Antuono is now in charge of?  If you said the January 6 Capitol incursion, give yourself a gold star.  Like Dorothy in reverse, Steve clicked his heels a went from Kansas to the Emerald City.

As was the case in Michigan, unless they out themselves like the hapless Steve Robeson, we will never know who the UCEs or CHSs are in this episode are either.  What we do know is the FBI had plenty of opportunity to thwart the Capitol attack well in advance of January 6 but chose not to.  Could there have been a political reason for this decision?  Oh no, of course not, that’s crazy conspiracy talk.  Hey Jack Dorsey, can you unlock my Twitter account now?

Sources:  WARNING:  Clicking on these links will take you to the dark places of the web where no person should go!  Sorry, no, I can’t back that up.  The first two are DOJ links, the third is the left-wing publication Jacobin Magazine and the fourth is  Revolver which has been cited numerous times, and the final source is The Detroit News.

• Watkins, Crowl, Caldwell Indictment (justice.gov)
• Garbin Complaint – DocumentCloud
• We Shouldn’t Trust the FBI’s Narrative on the Gretchen Whitmer Kidnapping Scheme (jacobinmag.com)
• Unindicted Co-Conspirators in 1/6 Cases Raise Disturbing Questions of Federal Foreknowledge – Revolver
• Feds indict FBI informant in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case (archive.is)

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