Thread by @trevoraaronson

How real was the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer? Thousands of pages of FBI reports and hundreds of hours of undercover recordings obtained exclusively by @theintercept provide an inside look at the controversial sting. 🧵 bit.ly/3P9OHF4

This story, reported and written by @Eric_VanDussen and me, reveals that FBI agents were concerned that informant Stephen Robeson's actions might suggest entrapment. To prevent Robeson from damaging the case, FBI agents used leverage to keep him off the witness stand.

Among the key findings in our story:

-- A recording of the FBI's interrogation of Stephen Robeson provides a rare look inside an FBI investigation. At one point, an agent says: "A saying we have in my office is, 'Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story,' right?"

-- FBI reports and recordings reveal how the FBI has adapted abusive war-on-terror sting tactics to target perceived domestic extremists and raise questions about whether the FBI pursued a larger effort to encourage political violence ahead of the 2020 election.

-- An undercover FBI agent who went by the nickname "Red" offered to provide bombs to the would-be Whitmer kidnappers. Three weeks earlier, the same agent was in Denver, where he encouraged a plot to kill the state AG. bit.ly/3YGi3gs

-- Federal agents running the Whitmer plot investigation endangered the public to avoid undermining their operation. Agents suspected that one man might have had a live grenade in the state Capitol but did not stop him. (The grenade turned out to be nonfunctional.)

-- The Justice Department claimed Robeson was a "double agent" whose actions weren't under the FBI's control. But FBI records and recordings reveal this claim was part of a carefully planned strategy.

"The FBI's Double Agent" includes links to FBI documents and audio clips of the FBI's five-hour recorded conversation with Robeson after the kidnapping was announced. bit.ly/3P9OHF4