Michigan’s Attorney General Reacts to Domestic Terror Plot

DANA NESSEL, MICHIGAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we’ve known for a long time that these groups are not just in the State of Michigan. This is not just a Michigan problem. This is an American problem at this point. So, these groups operate, there’s a large network of them who hold extreme ideologies and operate across state lines, and, you know, the goal — the ultimate goal, for instance, of the Boogaloo movement is really a civil war. It’s to overthrow the government and they thrive on the civil unrest that we’re seeing right now as a result of the COVID epidemic, as a result of the Black Lives Matter protests and really because of the chaos and anarchy that is inspired each and every day by the president of the United States.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, the boogaloo reference is to the Maryland person who was arrested and, in your state, it’s Wolverine Watchmen who have been — members have been arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. Can you give me the latest on the investigation? How many of them? What were they — I mean, you say make a civil war, overthrow the government, what were they exactly planning to do? We hear that there was an IED in fact found that, you know, one of them had. I mean, that’s serious.

NESSEL: Well, there were a number of allegations in this case. Not just to kidnap, put on trial and then execute Governor Whitmer, but in addition to that, you know, there was planning involved in terms of taking over the Michigan State Capitol building and possibly blowing it up or, you know, committing mass murder inside the Capitol building while the legislature was in session. There was talk about executing a number of law enforcement officials and actually an effort to locate where law enforcement officials lived to do that, and then also threats against other government officials. So, I mean, there were a number of different considerations in process. The plot that seemed to take on the — that was most aggressive, I will say, and had the most planning and training involved did involve this plot involving Governor Whitmer. But, you know, these groups have been active for a number of years, but I will say that in recent years, and when I say that, I mean, specifically since President Trump has taken office, you know, we have seen an exponential growth in the number of groups and also in membership.