FBI fires lead agent in Whitmer kidnapping case
(The Center Square) – The FBI agent credited with foiling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s kidnapping plot no longer works for the agency after he was charged with allegedly smashing his wife’s head into a nightstand and choking her after a swingers’ sex party.
The Detroit News first reported the firing of former Special Agent Richard Trask, 39, who took the public face of the investigation, testifying in court.
However, the FBI dropped Trask as a witness aftersocial media posts calling former President Donald Trump a “douchebag” and other expletives surfaced.
The firing is another blow to the credibility of at least a dozen confidential informants planted within the Whitmer kidnapping plot, some who allegedly hatched the plan and another who rose to second-in-command of the group.
In March, prosecutors also indicted an informant the Detroit News reported helped the FBI infiltrate the alleged conspiracy.
Five alleged kidnappers are scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 12. The defendants, however, maintain the government set them up. One defense attorney alleges an FBI agent told a paid confidential information to lie, delete messages between them, and implicate an innocent third party.
The deceit continues to blur the line between who was an FBI agent, confidential informant, or an extremist and which group fueled the conspiracy.
Ty Garbin, 25, has been the only alleged extremist to plead guilty to the plot, and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.
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