Posted on 03/29/2012 5:09:16 AM PDT by marktwain
“A federal judge acquitted seven members of the Hutaree militia Tuesday of the most serious charges following six weeks of testimony in a high-profile terror case,” The Detroit News reported yesterday.
On the second anniversary of the Hutaree arrests, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts granted a defense motion to acquit the militia members on seven charges, including seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Still open are some weapons charges “against Hutaree leader David Stone Sr. and his son.”
It’s a stunning defeat for Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department, which made great media hay of the danger the group posed when their FBI raid and arrests were announced. The conflationists were quick to tar all conservatives with the charge of being violent extremist haters, with Media Matters slapping at predictable punching bags Glenn Beck and Fox News. And also immediately exploiting the situation for maximum effect and without any consideration for fact-checking: the gungrabbers, as Kurt Hofmann reported back in March of 2010.
That the case was problematic became apparent early on. I cautioned Trigger Sports Live! viewers to remember that the suspects—in spite of what was being reported and the disturbingly-titled “Evil Jews” forum section on their website notwithstanding—were innocent until proven guilty, and that we needed to wait and see what facts would be established (see sidebar media player).
This column subsequently noted some of the warning flags that all might not be as the government and dutiful media camp followers might have us believe, asking “Does freeing of Hutaree on bond tell us anything about government's case?”, “Hutaree release blocked-for how long?”, and “Why would prosecutor 'misrepresent' conditions of Hutaree bond release?” (An archive of Gun Rights Examiner “Hutaree” posts can be found here.)
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Remember, these guys were busted on these bogus charges (along with tons of press releases issued by justice dept.) at the hight of the Tea Party movement. It’s pretty clear now that wasn’t a coincidence.
Brian Williams must’ve missed it.
I’m with the judge on this one. I have little use for these guys personally but that doesn’t negate their rights and the simple fact is that there was no intent to harm anyone.
Meanwhile they were sitting in jail for HOW long? On charges that were ultimately dismissed?
Meanwhile, they’ve lost two years of their lives in jail, on charges so bogus that the judge tossed them immediately.
Mike
Otherwise this particular group were entirely too mild mannered for normal FBI interest.
Which is why I always thought these arrests were orchestrated to discredit the Tea Party movement. There were lots of efforts at the time to discredit all conservatives as violent extremists and this was part of that effort. That a bunch of innocent men had to sit in jail for well over a year didn't bother Holder in the least.
How much do you want to bet that they have a stack of dossiers on all kinds of right wing individuals and groups?
When they need to divert attention from something pull a file, arrest a few people, feed the MSM a bogus line and viola, mission accomplished.
Oh there was definitely an intent by the government to hurt the citizens.
Obama has used virtually every government agency to harm, harrass or otherwise do dirt to US Citizens. He is a pig.
IIRC, Nixon was trashed for having an enemies list. His misuse pales compared to 0s.
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