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1:06

This is Camellian, season 7. The

1:09

Michigan Plot. A production of Campside

1:11

Media. Oh. The

1:13

bench. The bench. It's July

1:15

27th, 2020. FBI

1:34

informant Dan Chappell is in Grand Rapids,

1:36

Michigan to meet with Adam Fox at

1:38

the vacuum cleaner store where Adam lives

1:41

and works. What's

1:44

up, man? Adam

1:48

greets Dan with his barfy dog at

1:50

his side. As

1:57

usual, Adam wants to leave

1:59

phones upstairs. and talk down in the

2:01

basement. And

2:05

as usual, Dan picks up the basement

2:07

conversation on his hidden key fob recorder.

2:11

For the last couple of weeks, Dan and

2:13

Adam have been talking every day. Adam

2:15

is still furious about Michigan

2:18

Governor Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 executive

2:20

orders. He's been thinking of

2:22

ways to send her a message that enough

2:24

is enough. One

2:26

idea is to send a bomb to her

2:28

office. But now he's having

2:31

second thoughts about that. It's

2:40

hard to hear, but he says, if

2:43

we blow some shit up, they're going to label

2:45

us as terrorists. He

2:47

says any terrorist act could be

2:49

devastated to the community. Right.

3:06

Dan, who has been trying to get Adam

3:08

and others to make any sort of

3:10

plan at all, proposes a less violent

3:12

alternative. Fire a bullet

3:14

through the window of Whitmer's vacation home when

3:16

nobody is around. And

3:20

have contacts in other states do the same

3:22

with their governors. And

3:25

then have everything on coordination.

3:30

But even Adam, no stranger to hair-brain

3:33

notions, thinks that's a stupid idea. In

3:36

any case, he's got a better one.

3:38

One he describes as the most peaceful

3:40

option. Snatch

3:50

and grab. Just grab the fucking

3:52

governor. It's

3:56

over. Right. We'll think about it later. We're in there. I mean,

3:58

you can't do this. No, no,

4:00

no, no, no, you can't do it at the

4:02

mansion. Like all the others

4:04

Dan's heard, this isn't a very plausible

4:07

plan. He starts to argue,

4:09

you can't kidnap her from the Capitol or

4:11

the governor's mansion, too much security. I don't

4:13

know, the thing is that we gotta find

4:15

out when she's gonna be in a certain

4:17

area, but after a week of dinner on the fucking

4:19

island, that would be the process. Adam

4:22

says the ideal kidnap location would be

4:24

the governor's summer residence on Mackinac Island

4:26

in Northern Michigan. And Dan says,

4:28

hey, maybe we

4:30

should start writing this stuff down. What do you

4:32

think? Yeah, I don't know if you wanna write shit down. If

4:35

we should start writing shit down, get a whiteboard or

4:37

something. Adam

4:40

hesitates for just a second. Yeah.

4:47

With Dan writing, Adam takes one

4:49

giant hit of weed. Okay, so

4:51

this is what we need to

4:53

move forward. And launches into an

4:56

absurd plan, straight out of a Michael

4:58

Bay movie. We do this, it's

5:00

gonna have to go down like, it's gonna have

5:02

to be like movie type

5:04

shit, man. Yeah, we're gonna move on both.

5:07

He says, if we do this, it's gonna

5:09

have to go down like movie type shit,

5:11

man. And we come in on

5:13

motherfucking boats and get the bitch and take her

5:15

on a boat in the middle of the lake,

5:18

load her up on a helicopter and get her

5:20

to the middle of that fucking area. In

5:22

the middle, we're gonna fucking make our history. Yeah. To

5:27

carry out this scheme, they need

5:29

an A-team level squad of guys,

5:31

each bringing their own expertise. We

5:34

need electronic guys to start hacking some shit,

5:36

like, you know, some tech savvy motherfuckers that

5:38

maybe can see some shit. Some electronics guys

5:41

to start hacking some shit. Some

5:43

tech savvy motherfuckers who can see

5:45

some shit. Demolition experts. Demolition, all

5:47

right, let's get down to the

5:49

next level. We

5:52

don't write bombs. We don't write

5:54

bomb. He whispers to the FBI

5:56

informant. I'll say bomb. It's

6:00

odd to the supply last

6:02

job of camels, tacos, thrones,

6:05

cameras. Go. Press a

6:07

helicopter. Oh yeah, to

6:09

truck mounted heavy caliber. Proceed

6:11

Gets to. Me:

6:14

why would a couple thousand rounds

6:16

for those? He admits it's that

6:18

heavy caliber ammunition like that would

6:20

cost or had two bucks a

6:22

bullet hole work around for food

6:24

and beverage with with Global. Sending

6:26

is obviously an issue in that

6:28

Adam doesn't have any sense, but

6:30

it's cool. Dad says Steve robust

6:33

and offer them a credit card

6:35

to buy whatever they want. A

6:37

Me on the ballpark. Thousand

6:39

dollar horrible five hour long

6:41

haul. Remember Robeson is also

6:44

an F B I Informant.

6:47

Out of there as a down to two

6:49

possible locations ready to grab the governor. The

6:51

official summer residence or back an island

6:54

or her personal, the case, you know,

6:56

a cottage or little lake near Traverse

6:58

City. Dance. As the first step

7:00

to seduce. Of reconnaissance Are these places

7:02

like rebooted Filter before any kind of

7:04

woman who deal for don't get up?

7:06

There are sites occur within over the

7:09

first. They need more manpower. Then

7:11

tells Adam to approach The Wolverine Watchman about.

7:14

This plan at the next training. So.

7:16

Why go through outraged? What? hey

7:18

hey hey yo Rip? Go to

7:20

Wouldn't. Get

7:22

knocked your eight years if if you

7:25

down or taco opposite trail if it

7:27

off our the other said of i'm

7:29

doing your favorite soccer would you do

7:31

that betray your absolute. For.

7:37

Ago so I'd. Prefer. Progressivism.

7:41

Added tell stand a snatch and grab

7:43

of the governor seems like the best

7:45

way to go presently. Such always. Have.

7:48

Nowhere to. Be

7:51

in charge more. For.

7:54

adam says it won't be catch and

7:56

release the plan is to charge whitmer

7:58

with violating the constitution and then

8:00

dole out some kind of punishment. They

8:03

come up out of the basement, back by

8:06

Dan's phone, which is still recording. Alright,

8:09

brother. Alright, man. We

8:11

got this shit rolling. Alright. Yeah,

8:14

I gave him a tie and all that. Dan

8:16

walks out to his truck and gets it, as

8:18

he talks into his phone to the

8:20

FBI agents monitoring the feed. Well,

8:23

that was a really productive, uh,

8:26

meeting. In

8:29

just over three months with the Wolverine Watchmen, Dan

8:32

had heard a lot of unfocused,

8:34

violent, and downright crazy talk, but

8:37

nothing even remotely resembling a

8:39

coherent plot. Finally,

8:41

a breakthrough. There was a

8:43

target, a location, a supply

8:45

list. Finally,

8:48

there was a plan. Well,

8:51

sort of. I'm

8:53

Jessica Garrison. And I'm Ken Bensinger.

8:56

From Campside Media and Sony Music

8:58

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7, The Michigan Plot.

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10:30

Inlaws: Love him or hate him, get

10:32

pretty much stuck with him. And when you are

10:34

ruler in the Middle Ages, that can be a

10:36

serious problem. He might even land

10:38

you did. I'm Dan Jones and on

10:41

season for of this is his streak

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on telling the story of England's weird

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is King Henry the Third. these in

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way over his head and he surrounded

10:50

by bloodthirsty relatives with their eyes on

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his throne to listen such this is

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history and follow where ever you get

10:56

your podcasts. It's

11:04

July. Twenty third. Twenty twenty a dance.

11:06

Apple is it is. Track. Lost

11:08

Somewhere near Lake Orion just

11:10

north of Detroit. Like

11:13

always in Gps of

11:16

his arrest us. Is

11:18

looking for the house of Daniel Harris. What

11:20

of the guys for the leadership group of

11:22

the Wolverine? Watch with. Oh

11:24

there they are nowhere near or the

11:26

for the for. Sale

11:32

hops out and. Makes. His way into

11:34

the backyard or Harris at a few other

11:36

watch that are setting up for a classic

11:38

Michigan. Bonfire complete with bug

11:40

spray. and

11:42

beer now if the attic lox in

11:45

the unviable open a beer bottle like

11:47

a man though they gather around inveighed

11:49

so theres what at by the whether

11:51

you think it was sort of of

11:53

a birth and war but around the

11:55

sire the

12:00

whole conversation is spent. Daniel

12:02

Harris called this gathering to fill the

12:04

guys in on everything they learned from

12:07

attending the out-of-state meetings and trainings run

12:09

by Steve Robeson and Barry Croft. Overall,

12:12

Harris is unimpressed. He

12:15

starts with the training in Cambria, Wisconsin. Most

12:18

of the people there were pretty tactically inept.

12:20

Statically wise, it's kind of incompetent, but

12:22

we're working with him on that. Harris

12:25

gives a recap of the meeting in Peoples,

12:27

Ohio, how it was a lot of crazy

12:29

people throwing out wild ideas, storming

12:32

the Capitol, shutting down interstate

12:35

commerce, contaminating water

12:37

supplies. But the ideas they were

12:39

throwing out there were kind of improbable

12:42

and dreadful, so

12:45

I kidnapped politicians. He

12:47

says they want to kidnap

12:49

politicians. Everyone around the

12:51

campfire sounds sick of hearing these ideas.

12:54

Dude, that is not what I'm here for. I'm not here

12:56

to fucking grab any politicians and hold

12:58

them hostage or go, first of all, first

13:00

of all, just think about it. You might remember that

13:02

at the Peoples meeting, Dan was one of the

13:04

guys trying to push the group to come up

13:06

with a plan. And sitting

13:09

around the bonfire, their faces illuminated by

13:11

the flames, one of the watchmen makes

13:13

a pretty prescient point about guys who

13:15

push for violent plans. The

13:18

dudes that are calling for fucking, we need to

13:21

go assassinate people. We need to go fucking bomb

13:23

government buildings. We need to do all this crazy

13:25

shit. Nine times out of time, it's

13:27

bullshit. A lot of these instigators

13:30

are probably feds. I'm

13:34

serious about this. Nine times out of

13:37

time, it's the feds talking about the

13:39

crazy shit. They're trying to push people.

13:41

They're basically doing it. Dan,

13:45

chefs, it is secret. It's not to scare

13:47

anybody. It's not to say some dumb shit.

13:50

But I'm serious. I'm the side guy.

13:52

That sounds like somebody's fed with shit. Something off-feds would say.

13:54

It's a bit of a fucking curve. And

13:58

I've said this before. Somebody's sitting right here. right

14:00

now. Give me a

14:02

buck. At

14:26

a bonfire in Daniel Harris's backyard, one

14:28

of the guys from the Wolverine Watchmen

14:30

said that any one of them could

14:32

be a fed. He had

14:34

no idea how right he was. By

14:37

August, there were a growing number

14:39

of informants and FBI agents working

14:41

this case. And one of

14:43

them was this guy, an undercover agent who

14:46

calls himself Mark who had just flown in

14:48

from Los Angeles to help out with the

14:50

case. The time

14:52

is approximately 1248 Eastern Standard time on

14:58

Saturday, August 1st. This

15:00

will be a consensually recorded meeting between

15:03

UCE, Adam

15:05

Fox and others. Mark

15:09

first met Adam Fox in person at the

15:11

training in Cambria, Wisconsin. He

15:13

went there to gather information for the

15:15

FBI on this newly formed coalition of

15:17

militia groups. Now on a

15:19

rainy first day of August, he's headed

15:22

to a barbecue at the house of Adam's

15:24

second in command, a guy named Sean Six.

15:27

Yes, Fox and Six.

15:30

Six greets Mark outside. Hey

15:32

brother, what's going on? No,

15:37

nothing to do about it. Adam and his

15:39

girlfriend demand does show up not long after

15:41

Mark arrived. Adam

15:49

stopped off at a grocery store to pick up a dessert

15:51

for the occasion. They

15:54

head up to fix this house, sit down in the back

15:57

porch. and

16:01

of course smoke a lot of weed. Mark

16:04

abstains. Adam

16:11

is about to tell them about his

16:13

meeting with Dan and the plans they

16:15

discussed when Adam's girlfriend, Amanda, stops

16:17

him. They

16:24

want to swear Mark in before they talk business.

16:26

Have him take the oath of the three percenters.

16:29

Mark says, sure, why not? I will

16:31

defend my fellow Americans, my family and

16:33

my country, so help me God. I

16:35

will defend my fellow Americans, my family

16:38

and my country, so help me God.

16:48

Now that Mark can be trusted, Adam

16:50

fills them all in on the plan. That's where we're

16:52

at right now, is we've

16:54

been organizing our pieces. And that's what me

16:56

and Dan started kind of establishing the other

16:58

day. He tells them about the

17:00

meeting with Dan at the Vakshak that you heard at

17:03

the top of this episode. The personnel

17:05

and items they're going to need and

17:07

the possible locations to carry out the

17:09

kidnapping of Governor Whitmer. Adam

17:11

says the location he prefers is the governor's

17:14

summer residence on Mackinac Island, where they can

17:16

kidnap her by boat and take her to

17:18

a helicopter. It's like not even making a

17:20

fucking noise. Like we're going to be all quiet as

17:23

shit, sneak off, get in there. Come in by boat,

17:25

grab her, leave by boat, helicopter,

17:27

and sneak us in the superior.

17:30

Mark tries to make sense of the plan. The

17:33

helicopter picks them up in the middle of

17:35

the lake? Yep, pretty

17:37

much. And where, you're

17:39

probably asking, are these guys going to

17:42

get a helicopter? Well,

17:44

Sean Fick says, he's a former

17:46

Navy SEAL. He could get a helicopter,

17:48

no problem. This thing will be

17:50

fully armored. Fully armored Black Hawk. And

17:54

I can also get a Bell Huey. A

17:56

fully armored Black Hawk and a Bell

17:58

Huey helicopter? That really would

18:01

be amazing. Sean Fix likes

18:03

to tell everyone how, as a SEAL,

18:05

he did four tours of duty and

18:07

saw a lot of combat. When I was in

18:09

the SEALs, guess how many rounds we carried

18:11

on him? We carried anywhere from 6,000

18:14

to 9,000 rounds. Fix

18:16

didn't carry any rounds because he was

18:18

never in the Navy SEALs. The truth

18:21

is, he's never even been in the armed

18:23

forces. He's just a truck driver. And

18:25

he absolutely, positively, cannot

18:28

procure a Black Hawk helicopter. I'm going to

18:30

be the one that's flying a chopper. Unless

18:32

somebody else knows how to fly a Black

18:34

Hawk, I am going to take that

18:36

risk and I will be flying. Again,

18:41

no, he super won't. And

18:43

even though this plan is dead on

18:45

delivery, it's interesting to hear the wheels

18:47

in Adam Fox's head turning when he

18:49

contemplates, for what seems like the first

18:51

time, what they will actually do with

18:53

the governor once they have her. What are we

18:55

going to do with her? Right, nobody's going to know about it. What

18:58

are we going to do with her? What are they going to do

19:00

with her? That's where we always end up stopping.

19:03

This little part of the plan has stumped them

19:05

before. Adam has a

19:08

suggestion. Once they have her, maybe they'll

19:10

poll the general public on whether she's

19:12

guilty or not. Does it matter how

19:14

they poll? Does she kill a few

19:16

treason? Yes. The public says yes,

19:18

okay. At that point. Then

19:23

what? Adam says, if you're just

19:25

going to execute her, like, what's the point?

19:27

If it's like you're just going to execute her. Why

19:31

even go through all this? Why not just take her fucking shot? No, we

19:33

don't need to execute her. At that point, you just get it. That's

19:36

going to open up a can of worms. Yeah. They

19:39

decide that killing Whitmer is probably not

19:41

the best route. Maybe they'll

19:43

figure out what they want to do with her later. For

19:46

now, they're in the information gathering phase.

19:49

That starts with doing what Dan

19:51

recommended, laying eyes on the two

19:54

possible kidnap locations. The

19:56

summer residence on Mackinac Island and

19:58

the Governor's personal vacation home. near

20:00

Traverse City. We've got to scout our locations. OK. That's

20:03

our very beginning point right now. This all

20:05

starts now. Mark

20:07

told Adam that he lives in Michigan's upper peninsula.

20:10

So Adam asks the undercover agent if

20:12

he will go and do reconnaissance on

20:14

the summer residence. What else can

20:16

I do for you up north? If you're

20:18

talking Mackinac, what? Recond,

20:20

man. I mean, if you go like... You want

20:22

to take a look at it? Yeah, go to

20:24

the island for a day and see. Adam

20:27

seems to trust Mark implicitly. We

20:29

are each other's best fucking family. We're a family now, bro.

20:32

Like, this is it. Like, butt in, butt out, motherfucker. Like,

20:34

this is it. Like, we are

20:36

all fucking brothers. Yeah, I'm here. I'm

20:38

here. Yeah, keep going, so... Adam

20:43

has no idea that he's getting himself

20:45

in deeper and deeper trouble. Do you

20:51

think the 6331, this will

20:53

include the potential holdings

20:55

of a fox house?

21:00

By this time, the Wolverine Watchmen were starting

21:02

to fall apart. Joe Morrison

21:04

had taken a step back to work on

21:06

his struggling marriage. Pete Musico

21:09

was in Alabama, dealing with a family

21:11

problem. Paul Bellar had left

21:13

the group in June after a spat with

21:15

Morrison. And since then, he'd been

21:17

kicked out of his apartment and moved in

21:19

with his dad in South Carolina to deliver

21:21

for DoorDash and try to save money. Still,

21:24

depleted as they were, the Watchmen held

21:26

a training on August 9th at Morrison's

21:28

house in Munis. Adam

21:31

and Sean Fixx showed up. Dan did too,

21:33

but we don't have the recordings from the

21:35

training. We have to go off

21:37

FBI reports and partial transcripts of what was

21:39

said. According to FBI

21:41

files, when the training was over, Adam gathered

21:43

the group and said, how

21:46

does everyone feel about kidnapping? The

21:49

general response was negative. Most

21:52

of the Watchmen left after that, leaving

21:54

only Adam, Dan, Sean

21:56

Fixx, Joe Morrison, and

21:58

one other member of the Watchmen. Adam

22:01

and Fix said they were still into the kidnapping plan.

22:04

But maybe because that plan had been

22:06

so roundly rejected by the group, in

22:08

another bizarre moment for an FBI informant,

22:12

Dan started pitching alternate, less violent

22:14

crimes. If you

22:16

don't want to kill anybody or anything, and you don't want her

22:18

to be there, find out number two, get some

22:20

tannerite, and put a den in her house, or a

22:22

driveway. Number two

22:25

was Adam's second location, the governor's

22:27

vacation home near Traverse City. That's

22:29

right, Dan essentially told the group, if

22:32

you won't kidnap the governor, would you

22:34

at least consider blowing a hole in her

22:36

house? If you want to let

22:38

them know that you're there, all right, find out

22:40

number two, which is the actual structure, her place,

22:42

she's down in session, okay? Put a den in

22:45

her house, you know? Or a

22:47

fucking boat. Can't take it out if

22:49

the motherfuckers suck. Dan seems

22:51

to push for that specific target,

22:53

the governor's vacation home. He

22:55

wants to make a recon trip up there

22:57

soon, possibly funded by their friend from

23:00

Wisconsin, Steve Robison. Well, I

23:02

think we need to start going up north. After

23:04

the FTX, I'll talk to Steve about getting that

23:06

card, at least checking it out. Try

23:09

to find out where the actual residence is, just rolling

23:11

through. Later

23:13

that night, Dan called Adam to talk more

23:15

about the idea of blowing up the governor's

23:18

boat. Then, Dan posted

23:20

the idea to the encrypted chat. In

23:23

reply, Adam posted a whole string

23:26

of bomb emojis, target emojis, and

23:28

fire emojis. The few

23:30

others who replied didn't seem to know what the

23:32

guys were talking about. And then

23:34

a few hours later, Daniel Harris chimed into

23:36

the group, in what he

23:38

would later describe as a moment of

23:41

exasperation at all that endless chatter about

23:43

the governor. He posted this.

23:50

Laying in bed, craziest idea.

23:54

Have one person go to her house, knock

23:56

on the door, and when she answers

23:58

it, just cap her. At

24:00

this point, fuck it. I

24:03

mean, fuck. Catch her walking into the

24:05

building, act like a passerby, fixing

24:08

the domer, then yourself. Whoever does

24:10

it, why create a manhunt? Do it

24:12

in broad daylight and then end it. Or just

24:15

mug the pizza guy and take his shirt.

24:18

Either way, if y'all want to go after her, just

24:21

do it that way. Pass your shit

24:23

off and just take a pistol in

24:25

like three rounds. Harris

24:30

would later say he was being sarcastic. Like,

24:33

if you're going to do it, just do it. And

24:35

kill yourself while you're at it. The

24:38

FBI, for its part, definitely did

24:40

not read his messages that way. Adam

25:00

Fox's relationship with his girlfriend, Amanda Keller, had hit

25:02

a bit of a rough patch. Amanda

25:06

wasn't happy with the amount of time Adam was spending with

25:08

his boyfriend-at-arms, Dan Chappell. At

25:11

one point, in the heat of

25:13

an argument, Adam called

25:15

Amanda a liberal, an unthinkable slur. He

25:17

had to buy her flowers and chocolates to

25:19

make up for that one. But by mid-August, their relationship

25:22

was on the rocks. We

25:26

wanted to follow up with Amanda about this time

25:28

period, but her internet was down. So

25:31

she went to the one place she could count on

25:33

for reliable, high-speed Wi-Fi, her

25:35

local McDonald's. Me and Adam

25:37

were having some major

25:39

problems. I was losing

25:41

him to Dan. I

25:44

was losing my boyfriend, my fiancé, to

25:46

a man. Around

25:49

mid-August, after a particularly bad argument,

25:52

Amanda sent Adam packing back to

25:54

the Vaxchak basement. She

25:57

was upset and took to Facebook, looking

25:59

for support. I posted on Facebook,

26:01

can somebody call me? I need to

26:03

talk. I don't want to text. I

26:05

need a voice. She

26:08

got a surprising DM in response

26:10

from an acquaintance named

26:12

C.M. Phillips. And

26:14

he's like, call me. We got

26:16

some things to discuss. I'm

26:19

like, okay. I met this guy once, you

26:21

know. So I called

26:24

him and we talked about

26:26

some of the problems me and Adam were having. And

26:30

then after a while, he said,

26:33

look, Amanda, the feds

26:35

are in the group. They're already in.

26:37

They know everything. I

26:41

questioned him many times. I said, how do

26:43

you know this? And the only

26:45

answer he would give me is please just

26:47

trust me. I know. Phillips

26:50

had been at the meeting in Dublin. He'd

26:52

been at Peebles too. And

26:54

like many, many other people in

26:57

this story, C.M. Phillips was

26:59

working as an FBI informant. Now

27:02

he seemed to be tossing a lifeline

27:05

to Amanda Keller. He said,

27:07

look, Amanda, you need

27:09

to call the feds and you need to tell

27:11

the feds you're not part of this. And

27:15

if you do not, your door

27:17

will be broken in, your

27:19

dog killed, possibly your child

27:21

killed, and then you're going to

27:23

go to prison. By

27:26

the time Amanda got off the phone, her

27:28

head was spitting with panic. You

27:31

think your life is happy

27:33

and good and everything's going

27:35

great and your whole reality

27:37

is completely altered

27:40

and wrong. You don't

27:42

have much of a same

27:44

thought in the moment that

27:46

breaks a person down. Amanda

27:48

went back and forth about what to do. If

27:51

she told Adam the feds were on to him, she

27:53

might get herself in worse trouble than she was already in.

27:57

She could lose her freedom. She

27:59

could even lose her care. kid. And

28:02

I'm like, wait a minute. I didn't have a part in

28:04

any of this. I am

28:06

not going to ruin my life over a man

28:08

I was with nine months. And

28:11

so I called them. She

28:13

says what federal forms or federal violation are

28:16

you calling to report to them? Domestic

28:19

terrorists. And who would

28:21

that be? There's

28:24

a lot of them. Okay. On

28:26

August 21st, Amanda called

28:28

the FBI tip line. She

28:30

told them everything about the

28:32

out-of-state meetings, the collection of states that were

28:34

trying to come up with a plan. They're

28:37

going to move the

28:40

law-building, the loyalty

28:43

electric grid, kidnapped Governor

28:45

Whitworth and Chopra. A

28:51

few days later, the FBI summoned Amanda

28:53

to their office in Kalamazoo. She

28:56

was put in a room with special agent

28:58

Jason Chambers, who was running the investigation. There

29:01

was another agent there too named

29:03

Richard Trask. I was scared,

29:05

tired, mad. The

29:08

whole fucking meeting. I just didn't

29:10

lie because I knew if

29:12

I lied. Done. Amanda

29:16

told them everything she knew about all the

29:18

harebrained ideas they had come up with. Blowing

29:21

up power plants, destroying

29:23

satellites, killing law enforcement,

29:26

and of course, kidnapping and killing

29:28

governors. She told them

29:30

Barry Croft and Steve Robeson were leading

29:33

the effort. And then

29:35

she told them about Adam, that he had

29:37

guns in the basement of the Vakshak. That

29:39

if they tried to arrest him there, he wouldn't go

29:41

down without a fight. She

29:43

told them Adam was planning a recon of

29:46

the governor's vacation home in northern Michigan. But

29:48

that, of course, was something the

29:50

FBI was already well aware of.

29:55

I told them that I

29:57

wasn't involved and

30:00

I didn't want nothing to do with this shit. The

30:03

last words I said to them when I walked out

30:05

was, just please leave me alone now. Tras

30:08

laughed and said no. While

30:15

Amanda was in an FBI office telling

30:17

them everything she knew about Adam's plans,

30:20

Adam was busy planning a weekend recon of

30:22

Governor Whitmer's vacation home with his best

30:25

friend Dan. The goal

30:27

was to figure out where her boat was docked

30:29

so they could blow it up or burn it.

30:32

Adam had somewhat given up on the idea of

30:34

kidnapping the governor. But over time,

30:36

Dan convinced him they might as well check out

30:38

her house while they were up there. Adam

30:41

and Dan agreed to make the road trip on August

30:43

29th. In the lead

30:45

up, Special Agent Jason Chambers was texting

30:47

Dan, urging him to get as many

30:49

people to go on the trip as

30:51

possible. Dan pitched the recon

30:53

to other Watchmen members, but in the

30:55

end, no one else was willing to go. On

31:00

the morning of the 29th, Dan picked Adam up

31:02

at the Vaxack and they made the long drive

31:04

up north. On

31:07

the way, they stopped in the town of Cadillac

31:09

to pick up an acquaintance of Adam's, a

31:11

security guard named Eric Molitor. People

31:22

called Molitor roadblock because of his

31:24

snocky stature. But around the time

31:26

of the recon, he'd slimmed down a bit and was

31:29

going by a new nickname, Barricade.

31:32

In a 2023 interview, Molitor told journalist

31:34

Eric Van Dusen that when he got

31:36

in the car that day, he barely

31:38

knew who Adam was. He'd once

31:41

covered a shift for him at a hardware store. But

31:48

he agreed to go for a ride with Adam

31:51

that day, because Adam knew how to

31:53

get something he wanted. You

32:00

know what I mean? Adam

32:03

hadn't told Malator much, just that they were

32:05

going to surveil a high-profile location

32:07

house. He didn't know whose

32:09

house until he got in the truck. Going

32:12

to recon the tire

32:14

of bitches fucking vacation home in her boat

32:16

today, okay? Alright. The

32:18

first thing that I did here

32:21

when I got in the truck was Adam

32:23

said something about we're going to blow up

32:25

the bitches boat or something like that. Blow

32:29

that motherfucker up. Little

32:34

message, you know what I mean? Little

32:36

message, hey, your boat privileges are revoked,

32:38

man. I have

32:40

a dark sense of humor. A lot of us guys

32:42

do have a dark sense of humor in these circles,

32:45

so I just thought he was making a fucking

32:47

joke. He laughed about it. Before

32:53

hitting the road, Adam and Malator got

32:55

very high. Then the three

32:57

guys set out for the little town

32:59

of Elk Rapids, just outside Traverse City,

33:01

and wound up driving along the perimeter

33:03

of Birch Lake, where the governor's home

33:05

was located. Completely

33:07

baked, Adam had problems finding the

33:10

actual house. He didn't

33:12

have an address, so he texted Sean Fix for

33:14

help, and Fix gave him a description and

33:16

a general location. He said it's

33:18

on the Lake side. It's on

33:20

the Lake Michigan side for what I told him.

33:24

Aaron kept driving, while Adam looked up Whitmer's

33:26

address on a real estate website, which,

33:29

disturbingly, worked. Director

33:32

E. Whitmer, she's about 49 years old. Attention.

33:36

Her current address. Elk

33:39

Rapids, Michigan. Finally,

33:42

they found it. No, there's a ten

33:45

site. Don't

33:50

want to wait for that next episode? You

33:52

don't have to. Unlock all episodes

33:54

of Chameleon the Michigan Plot ad free

33:57

right now by subscribing to the Binge

33:59

Podcast channel. Just click subscribe

34:01

at the top of the chameleon show

34:03

page on Apple Podcasts or visit getthebinge.com

34:06

to get access wherever you get your

34:08

podcasts. As a subscriber you'll

34:10

get binge access to new stories on

34:12

the first of every month. Check

34:15

out the binge channel page on

34:17

Apple Podcasts or getthebinge.com to learn

34:19

more. It

34:22

was an understated little blue cottage on the

34:24

western shore of Birch Lake tucked back in

34:26

the shade of a stand of fir trees.

34:29

Suddenly, Molotar, through the

34:31

haze of his high, realized that this

34:33

wasn't a joke. I did not

34:35

know that I just hopped in a vehicle with two

34:37

guys who were gonna go plan to kidnap a fucking

34:39

governor. I'm thinking to myself

34:41

like how do I how do I handle

34:43

this? To have two guys, one of them

34:45

a fucking professional door kicker? Are

34:48

you kidding me? And another one a

34:50

jacked up right in bucket and hothead?

34:52

Yeah, it was pretty fucking intimidating man.

34:55

So now I have to sit in the back of the truck wondering how do I

34:57

get out of this? Molotar's strategy was

34:59

to play it cool and go along with it.

35:02

They drove by the house a few times

35:04

taking pictures. Then Adam had

35:06

Molotar take a slow-motion video as they went

35:08

by. Do slow-mo video

35:10

real quick put this up against that

35:13

window over there. On Dan's wire

35:15

you can hear Molotar wanting to leave. So we getting

35:17

the fuck out of here now? Oh, we

35:19

don't dare drive by it again. No,

35:21

no. No. We

35:24

did it in life. Yeah, we did it all.

35:28

We made my own four times. They

35:33

drove back around the lake to a boat launch

35:35

on the opposite side to see if they could spot

35:37

the lake house from the launch. While

35:40

they were parked there, Adam started chatting with

35:42

a random woman and just sort of wandered

35:44

off to her car to smoke weed with

35:46

her. Then he came

35:49

back freshly high to lay

35:51

out his master plan. The

35:55

idea, it appeared, was to pull up to

35:57

the house by boat, see if he could find it.

36:00

into it, take out any security, and

36:02

grab the governor. As

36:04

usual with Adam's plans, what

36:06

would happen next was equal

36:08

parts confusing and absurd. One

36:10

idea had them zooming across the lake in the boat

36:13

and then putting the governor in a car, taking

36:16

her somewhere. Which, there's

36:18

a road right by her house, so I'm not

36:20

sure why you would need a boat at all

36:22

if she's just gonna end up in a car.

36:25

But anyway, Adam had other

36:27

half-cocked ideas. He seemed

36:29

to believe Birch Lake is connected to Lake

36:31

Michigan. It isn't. But

36:33

in another version of the plan, they would put

36:35

the governor in the boat and drive the boat

36:37

out to the middle of Lake Michigan, where they

36:40

would disable the engine, then jump on a second

36:42

boat that was apparently waiting for them in the

36:44

middle of the lake, and then leave the governor

36:46

out there, set adrift. While

36:48

Adam spouted these wily coyote-ass

36:51

ideas, Dan discreetly snapped a

36:53

picture of him on the lake shore, looking

36:55

across at the governor's house. One

36:58

day, prosecutors would release that picture

37:00

to the media, presumably as proof

37:02

of the extensive planning that had

37:04

gone into what they described as an

37:07

elaborate and terrifying plot to kidnap Governor

37:09

Whitmer. When you first

37:11

look at the picture, Adam appears to

37:13

be looking through binoculars. But when

37:16

you look closer, you realize those

37:18

aren't binoculars at all. That

37:20

would have required some forethought to

37:22

actually bring binoculars. Instead,

37:25

Adam, deeply stoned, is holding

37:28

a baseball cap up to his face,

37:30

trying to squint the little air holes in the

37:33

top of the hat. After

37:44

that, they drove around town and took note

37:46

of a small bridge between the police department and

37:49

the house. They tried to estimate

37:51

how fast police could respond to a distress

37:53

call from the governor. sophisticated

38:00

recon, they stopped off at a local

38:02

tavern where Adam drew a map of what they

38:05

had seen that day. Dan covertly

38:07

took a picture of him drawing it.

38:10

Then they got back in the car. At

38:12

that point, Molitor seemed wiped out.

38:15

In the tapes, it sounds like Adam wakes him

38:17

up out of a weed nap. You

38:19

ready? Me? No. You

38:22

ready? No. You

38:24

ready for completion? Yeah, this is

38:26

our boat now. It's absolutely ridiculous. Adam

38:29

asks Molitor if he's in for the mission, but

38:32

it's clear that Molitor still doesn't even know what

38:34

the mission is. So what exactly is

38:36

happening? You know I'm here with the pieces,

38:38

but I don't want to just

38:42

extract. Extract your dad. Extractions,

38:46

Adam says. Snatch

38:48

and grab. He says

38:50

the whole thing is going to be well

38:52

planned out and professionally done. And

38:55

given the events of this surveillance, who

38:57

wouldn't believe him? By

39:00

the end of the ride, I had

39:02

two idiots in front of me who

39:04

didn't even have her address. They went

39:06

on this operation with nothing. With nothing.

39:08

They looked like morons to me, right?

39:11

Dude, I'm in as long as shit. You know, you

39:13

keep saying that you see me up professionally, long as

39:15

I'm professionally, it's just looked at like most of the

39:17

different angles. I'm going to add another shit to get

39:19

stupid. I've been around stupid people. I'm not saying nothing

39:21

about you guys. I just don't. I'm

39:24

having a fire just for you. Fox's

39:26

Fisher's Molitor? They are far

39:28

from stupid. They are far from stupid. Yeah.

39:36

As farcical as it was, that recon

39:39

trip was the first concrete step any

39:41

of these guys had taken toward kidnapping

39:43

the governor. But there was still,

39:45

really, only one guy who was

39:48

committed to the plan. Adam Fox.

39:51

And you can't have a conspiracy of one. But

39:54

the FBI would have another shot at getting

39:56

more guys involved. Ty Garbin,

39:58

one of the Wolverine Watchmen. with holding

40:00

a training in September on his property

40:02

outside of a town called Luther in

40:04

northern Michigan. Adam would be there,

40:07

along with a bunch of guys from the Wolverine

40:09

Watchmen. And maybe with a little

40:11

luck, a lot of behind

40:13

the scenes planning, and a whole lot

40:15

of coaxing, some of them

40:17

would get on board with Adam's plans. In

40:19

the meantime, Adam was still having

40:21

problems with

40:31

his girlfriend, Amanda. And a

40:33

few days after his trip up north with Dan,

40:35

they got together to talk things out. We were

40:37

helping one of his friends paint a house. And

40:41

we were sitting in my car, and

40:44

we were just, you know, talking. We'd

40:47

been going through a whole lot. And

40:50

we were trying to work things out.

40:52

We were trying to fix things between

40:54

us because we honestly loved each other.

40:58

And I started begging

41:00

him. I said, let's leave.

41:02

Let's go. Let's skip state.

41:04

Let's start over. I don't

41:06

care where we go. I

41:09

was ready to do anything I could to get

41:11

him out of this mess. I

41:13

begged and begged and begged. I was

41:16

bawling my eyes out, damn near

41:18

on my knees, begging him to

41:20

leave. He said,

41:22

I can't. These guys depend

41:24

on me. At

41:28

the end of the day, Adam made his

41:30

own choices. Adam could

41:32

have walked away just like I did. He

41:36

could have. Meanwhile,

41:42

Dan reached out to Adam, reminding him

41:44

that they would be awfully close to

41:46

the governor's vacation home again during the

41:48

upcoming training in Luther. We'll

41:51

have everyone there. We'll

41:53

retrace our steps. Check out that bridge. You

41:56

want to show other states the standard, let's take it to 11 and

41:59

show them. Better bring their boots

42:01

though. Gonna walk the walk, they

42:03

all talked. Who

42:06

knows? Adam texted back. But

42:09

what I do know is we got lots of

42:11

work to do if we're going to be

42:13

labeled domestic terrorists. And then, after

42:16

a pause, just kidding. Question

42:19

mark, exclamation point, question mark,

42:21

exclamation point, shrug emoji,

42:23

crazy smiley face emoji. On

42:36

the next episode of Chameleon Season 7,

42:38

the Michigan plot, at the Luther training,

42:40

Dan struggles to get Adam to plan

42:43

a night recon of the Governor's House,

42:45

while Adam stuffs his face

42:47

with candy. No, no, Eminem. No,

42:49

no, no, no, no. And

42:52

Adam makes plans to buy a bomb

42:54

from a mysterious new guy he's never

42:57

met. Do they come

42:59

in like variety places? Chameleon

43:10

is a production of Campside Media in

43:13

partnership with Sony Music Entertainment. The

43:16

Michigan plot is produced by Ryan Swiker. Callie

43:18

Hitchcock and Henry Levoie are associate

43:20

producers. The show is

43:23

hosted by me, Jessica Garrison. And

43:25

me, Ken Bensingt. Story

43:28

editing by Michael Canyon Myers. Josh

43:30

Dean is our executive producer. Voice

43:33

acting by Levi Petrie. Voice

43:35

acting by Julian Weller. Sound checking

43:37

by Anna Cook. Additional

43:39

research by Julie Deneschek. Sound

43:42

design and mix by E. Wynn

43:44

Lai-Tramulan. Music by

43:46

Blue Dot Sessions, Epidemic Sound, and

43:48

APM. A special thanks

43:50

to our operations team, Doug Flaywin,

43:53

Ashley Warren, and Destiny Dingle. Campside

43:56

Media's executive producers are Josh Dean,

43:58

Vanessa Gregorio, and Adam Hoff

44:00

and Matt Cher. If

44:03

you're enjoying the show, spread the word

44:05

and leave us a review on Apple Podcast.

44:08

It helps other people find the show. I'm

44:11

Jessica Garrison and thanks for listening.

44:19

I don't mind returning fire. I don't give a shit.

44:21

I'm going to be the one that's flying the chopper

44:23

unless somebody else knows how to fly a black box.

44:25

You know, the big negative. Hold on, hold on, hold

44:28

on that one, brother. I've never even been on an

44:30

airplane. You can teach me how to love to learn.

44:32

I don't know if we should be learning that on the fly, though. Not

44:36

the best idea.