Reported by The Detroit Free Press:
A
lawyer representing one of five young men arrested in an alleged
Halloween terrorism plot says the suspects are merely video gamers who
engaged in tough talk online and recreational gun activities — not
radicalized terrorists, as the FBI has claimed.
"These kids are gamers, gamers are weird in the way they talk to each other," attorney Amir Makled said to the Free Press following a jail visit with his client on Saturday, Nov. 1.
According
to Makled, his client is one of five men ages 16 to 20, all born in the
United States, who were arrested in separate FBI raids on Halloween,
accused of plotting to carry out a terrorist attack over the weekend.
But
none of it is true, protested Makled, who said there was never any plot
to harm anyone, and that FBI Director Kash Patel jumped the gun in
annoucing on "X" that the "FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and
arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a
violent attack over Halloween weekend."
"There is nothing here," Makled said. "What they did was jump the gun."
As for his 20-year-old client, who remains jailed without charges, Makled said:
"He
says they got it all wrong. ... There's no plan. There was no plot, and
there was no imminent threat of a terrorism event in the state of
Michigan at all. And I believe him."
None
of the five suspects have been charged. In federal cases, the
government typically has 48 hours to charge someone before letting them
go.
According to Makled, the five suspects landed on the FBI's radar over their recreational gun activity. ...
Makled
said this case reminds him of the failed 2012 Hutaree terrorism trial,
which involved a group of heavily armed militia members upset with the
government, and talking about committing all sorts of violence while
"playing army" in the woods.
The
defense in that case argued that it was all just talk. The judge
eventually agreed and acquitted seven of the Hutaree defendants, just as
the jury was about to go into deliberations. The defendants were free
to go and the jury was sent home.
"This
is like Hutaree 101," Makled said of the current case, adding: "I don't
know what the government has yet ... but it's giving me those Hutaree
vibes."
