{"id":1426237,"date":"2022-04-08T19:14:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T23:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1426237"},"modified":"2022-04-08T19:14:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T23:14:41","slug":"two-defendants-celebrate-acquittal-in-whitmer-kidnapping-trial-best-birthday-gift-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/two-defendants-celebrate-acquittal-in-whitmer-kidnapping-trial-best-birthday-gift-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Defendants Celebrate Acquittal In Whitmer Kidnapping Trial: \u2018Best Birthday Gift Ever\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftwo-defendants-celebrate-acquittal-in-whitmer-kidnapping-trial-best-birthday-gift-ever%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1426237&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/Gretchen-Whitmer-3.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Two men are celebrating after a West Michigan jury acquitted them on charges of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris were arrested in October and charged along with four others of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer over her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The jury ruled both men not guilty on the charge, as well as cleared Harris on three other related charges, including a conspiracy to use a \u201cweapon of mass destruction\u201d charge that carried a potential life sentence in prison.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBest birthday gift ever,\u201d Caserta, who was acquitted on his birthday, reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/robertsnellnews\/status\/1512497242128719874\">told<\/a> the courtroom in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after the jury\u2019s verdict was announced.<\/p>\n<p>Harris\u2019 father, Robert Harris, watched the month-long trial of his son from the public seating in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. \u201cWe are so elated!\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/julie_kelly2\/status\/1512507830166855685\">said<\/a> upon hearing the verdict. \u201cUnbelievable amount of people praying through this whole ordeal. God is so good!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jury deliberations ended in a mistrial for two other defendants involved in case, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, as the government failed to secure a single conviction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough we are disappointed the jury did not reach decisions in our favor, we continue to respect the jury trial system whatever the outcome. And we thank the jury for their service,\u201d U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Andrew Birge said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricLloyd\/status\/1512527454539337728\">statement<\/a>\u00a0following the verdict. \u201cTwo defendants now await re-trial and, for that reason, we have no further statement at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jury deliberations began on Monday and lasted nearly five full days. Closing arguments in the case wrapped up last week on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn America, there\u2019s a lot of things you can do. You can criticize the government publicly, absolutely,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/2022\/04\/02\/alleged-whitmer-kidnap-plot-now-hands-jury\/7251563001\/\">told<\/a>\u00a0jurors at the time. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like the government\u2019s policies, you can protest them. If you don\u2019t like elected leaders, you can vote them out at the ballot box. What you can\u2019t do is kidnap them, kill them, or blow them up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A team of defense attorneys placed the blame for the alleged conspiracy on the FBI. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/breaking-whitmer-plot-jury-refuses-to-convict-on-conspiracy-charges\">The Daily Wire<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>A team of defense lawyers argued that their clients were innocent of committing conspiracy and, to the extent that a conspiracy may have existed, the FBI had illegally manipulated their clients into it. Defense attorneys claimed that FBI agents and informants sought to prolong the investigation into the conspiracy for personal or professional reasons instead of following FBI policy regarding when to drop an investigation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Attorneys went after FBI informant Dan Chappel, the cornerstone of the case who recorded hundreds of hours-worth of audio of the conspirators from March to October 2020. The defense emphasized the roughly $54,000 Chappel received from the FBI in reimbursements and compensation for aiding the investigation for seven months.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">Become a member now and join our mission<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two men are celebrating after a West Michigan jury acquitted them on charges of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris were arrested in October and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1426237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1426237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1426237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1426237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1426237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}