What started out as a case seemingly designed to impugn the Tea Party and all dissent against government…
…is turning, so far, into a sign that Janet Napolitano really, really needed a diversion:
Federal authorities touted the arrests of nine members of a Michigan militia as a pre-emptive strike against homegrown terrorists, declaring at an initial court hearing that the suspects with “dark hearts and evil intent” wanted to go to war against the government.
Five weeks later, prosecutors are scrambling to regroup after a judge questioned the strength of their evidence by ordering the so-called rebels released until trial and saying they had a right to “engage in hate-filled, venomous speech.”
“The government is falling short,” said David Griem, a former federal prosecutor who’s not involved in the case. “The message that’s been sent to the community is there are problems with this case.”
During two days of hearings last week before U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts, prosecutors tried to show how dangerous they perceived the Hutaree militia to be by playing secretly recorded conversations. Those talks, however, revealed no specific plot. Under questioning by defense attorneys, the FBI’s lead agent on the case seemed unprepared.
Were the Hutaree a group of convenient “usual suspects” rounded up at a time the Administration needed to discredit all dissent outside the Beltway – Tea Parties, bitter gun-clinging Jesus freaks and Republicans all at the same time?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.