Mardi Link: Procedure not conspiracy
Oct. 8—Within a few minutes of the jury reaching a verdict in the Whitmer kidnap plot trial, internet busybodies revealed themselves as — surprise! — also scholars of criminal law.
Which is impressive considering these same folks, during the COVID-19 pandemic, claimed intimate knowledge of public health. Then acquired aerospace expertise just as those weirdly mysterious spy balloons (remember them?) floated across the US heartland.
The balloons were shot down, and one droopy carcass was even recovered from the waters of Lake Huron — an image I return to again and again in my mind, as I imagine the demise of this conspiracy theory or that one.
Wishful thinking, obviously.
The Record-Eagle began reporting on the Antrim County defendants the day of their arrest in October 2020, then followed the story for nearly three years.
We chronicled the case through preliminary hearings and delays, plea hearings, a judge's consolidation order, our struggle to obtain documents and evidence presented publicly in court, motions by defense attorneys and prosecutors, jury selection, the trial and finally the verdict.
The public could watch much of this court activity live online, and many did, although the flurry of social media activity immediately after the verdict confirm what we already know:
We live in an era where sideline opinions on important national stories like this one are shared first, critical thinking skills only come into play later. Or not at all.
The first few minutes after the verdict was read, found me sitting at a picnic table on the lawn of Antrim County's historic courthouse, writing a "break" for this newspaper's website.
A break is what reporters call a quick story, which delivers news immediately online, we then expand on in a more nuanced and substantive story for, in our case, the next day's print edition.
It was a few hours before I had time to check social media to see what people were saying about the case and the verdict.
Most of which was not factual.
The kidnapping-related terrorism charges did not stem from an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the government, and neither was the verdict a right-wing political statement by a government-hating jury.
What happened in that courtroom, day after day, was procedural not conspiratorial.
The jury heard testimony, considered and discussed the evidence presented in court, then decided the state did not prove its case and found the men not guilty.
In a democracy, the public health aerospace lawyers all get to say what they think, anytime they want, which is as it should be.
There's nothing in the Constitution, however, that says the rest of us have to listen to it.
Something to remember now that the classified document election equipment real estate engineers are weighing in on court cases in New York, Georgia and Florida.
Reach Senior Reporter Mardi Link at mlink@record-eagle.com
