McCarthy faces scrutiny from some in GOP over Jan. 6 riot
Congressional correspondent Chad Pergram outlines the conflict surrounding Rep. McCarthy, R-Calif., and breaks down factors that will affect GOP success in the midterms.
EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is seeking answers from the Justice Department (DOJ) on whether the FBI "entrapped" defendants in the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot 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 that backs defense lawyer claims that four defendants charged with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer were steered by undercover FBI agents and informants.
"The American people deserve a transparent justice system and law enforcement that keeps them safe, not entraps them in serious criminal activity in order to sway the outcome of a democratic election," Greene and 11 other GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
After a 20-day trial, two of the four men were acquitted on April 8 of a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer. Jurors couldn't reach a verdict on charges against two other defendants, resulting in a mistrial. Their lawyers alleged entrapment, and the federal judge in the case allowed jurors to consider whether the FBI engaged in the prohibited practice of cajoling or tricking individuals into committing crimes.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., talks as President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington March 1, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool, File)
Prosecutors sought to show that the defendants were talking about the kidnapping plot before the FBI sting with one defendant posting a video saying, "We need to use brutal force against the government" in 2019, months before he met any agents or informants. In May 2020, another defendant was talking about "hanging" the governor.
MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER KIDNAPPING PLOT: 2 MEN ACQUITTED, JURY DEADLOCKED ON 2 OTHERS
Spokespeople for both the FBI and the Justice Department confirmed receipt of the GOP letter but declined to comment further.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Greene sought to make a link between FBI "entrapping" the Whitmer defendants and the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. She questioned whether the FBI had any involvement or knowledge of those who broke into the Capitol and disrupted the House and Senate proceedings to certify President Biden's Electoral College win.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attends an event with President Joe Biden in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus March 9, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
"The comparison of the two incidents, that's what most people are just really concerned about – between Governor Whitmer and that whole conspiracy that looks to be completely possibly led by the FBI, which is terrifying, and the comparison of what happened on January 6," Greene said.
In the letter, the lawmakers ask Garland why the FBI was "paying confidential informants and special agents with histories of unethical conduct to entrap American citizens in a plot to kidnap the Governor of Michigan, and were they doing the same throughout the time leading up to the January 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol?"
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The letter comes as the House votes this week on H.R. 350, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, aimed at providing the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with more tools and resources to monitor, investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism cases and to root out neo-Nazi and White supremacist groups.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the greatest terrorism threat is domestic violent extremism.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security on the Department of Homeland Security's budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., April 27, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP)
Greene says she doesn't trust the people in charge of the FBI and DOJ and worries what they will do with more authority to go after those "they have deemed to be domestic terrorists – but yet the FBI could have been involved somehow [in] basically creating the domestic terrorism."
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She said she doesn't want to see ordinary Americans "talked into doing things that they hopefully would 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.
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