Informant: Whitmer kidnap suspect wanted to blow up COVID-19 vaccine plants, kill doctors

The masks and shutdowns were one thing.

But it was the COVID-19 vaccines, and the thought of them becoming mandatory, that really pushed the alleged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plotters over the edge, an undercover FBI informant testified Friday.

Were the vaccines "the breaking point," the prosecutor asked the informant.

"Yes," replied the informant, who told the jury how the alleged plotters reacted to news that vaccines were coming out.

It was the contact tracers and talk of making them mandatory that really riled the group up, the informant known as Dan testified.

To bolster his testimony, the government played recordings for the jury in which one of the defendants, Brandon Caserta, is heard telling the informant his opinions about mandatory vaccines, and what should happen to those who advocate for that.

"Buildings that manufacture vaccines — blow them up," Caserta is heard telling Dan.

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He also called for killing police officers who would enforce vaccine mandates, and killing the lawyers who support vaccines by cutting off their heads.

According to the undercover informant, Caserta was so angry about the vaccine that he wanted to target groups responding to the pandemic, including contact tracers, doctors and companies manufacturing the vaccines.

In encrypted group chats and in recordings displayed in front of the jury, Caserta spoke about seizing shipments of the vaccine and harming those who supported them.

"Doctors who advocated mandated vaccines — bullet to the face," Caserta is heard saying in recordings captured by Dan.

"Buildings that manufacture the vaccines, blow them up. I'm not even kidding. Any lawyer that supports a vaccine mandate, decapitate them in their own home" Caserta said.

Caserta presented himself as an anarchist to the group, often showing discontent to notions of co-defendant Adam Fox being the ringleader.

"Free men don't (get) ranked," Caserta wrote over encrypted messaging apps.

Caserta's discontent over the coronavirus pandemic stretched beyond vaccines — he wanted to identify those participating in contact tracing, even suggesting to pose as a volunteer contact tracer to gain more information on the process and target those administering tracing efforts.

"I don't call it contact tracing, I call it constitutional trampling," Caserta said in a recording made in Aug. 2020 during a meetup in Munith. "We create a dynamic where no one wants to be a contact tracer because they might f****** die."

Caserta, sitting in the second row of defendants next to his attorney, Michael Hills, didn't change his demeanor as the audio was played.

Along with a staunch stance against the COVID-19 vaccines, Caserta aired grievances on more than just what the governor in Michigan was doing. To him, she was just a servant, Dan said, adding he wanted to go after her "handlers."

"I want Zionist banker blood," Caserta is heard saying in one recording, likely referring to an antisemitic conspiracy theory that "Zionists" have infiltrated the government and make major decisions that shape society from behind the scenes.

In recordings played by prosecutors earlier in the trial, Caserta could be heard espousing similar conspiracies.

The comments alarmed Dan, who told jurors he made it a point to put himself between a door when with Caserta, just in case he ever had to make a quick escape.

"He wanted to drink their blood from their skulls," said Dan, referring to the "Zionist bankers' whom Caserta vented about. "He would go on tangents, he had a lot of emotion in this."

Dan described Caserta as impulsive.

" ... I was concerned about him," Dan testified. "He had violence in him. I made sure the door was behind me when he was talking."

Dan, who confirmed the authenticity of the government's audio recordings, is a key player in the case as he is the former Wolverine Watchmen member who left the group after hearing talk of killing cops, reported the information to the police, and then went undercover for the FBI.

It was Dan, known as "Big Dan," who helped the feds crack the case, the prosecution has argued, though the defense has portrayed him as a rogue informant who did what the FBI told him, egged on their clients and ran the whole show.

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Jurors also saw and heard video recordings of the suspects casing Whitmer's vacation house.

"That's it! That's f------ it!" Fox is heard telling the driver when he spots the house.

There's excitement in Fox's voice, and he tells the driver to turn around and survey the whole area. The undercover informant Dan was in the car with Fox.

On trial are Fox, 38, of Potterville, who is accused of being the ringleader; Daniel Harris, 24, of Lake Orion; Caserta, 33, of Canton Township, and Barry Croft, 46, of Delaware. All face kidnapping conspiracy charges; three face weapons of mass destruction charges.

If convicted, each faces up to life in prison.

Tresa Baldas:tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Informant: COVID-19 vaccines pushed Whitmer kidnap suspects overboard