Julie Kelly Conservative Journalist: Whitmer Kidnapping, January 6 & Border Conflict

About this episode

Conservative journalist Julie Kelly returns to walk through two of her signature investigations: the FBI's entrapment operation against men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (using paid informants, fabricated bomb videos, and coordinated messaging timed to hurt Trump before the 2020 election), and the January 6th prosecutions, which she argues were selectively harsh compared to BLM/Antifa violence at Lafayette Square months earlier. She and Vance widen the lens to COVID-era institutional failure — unaccountable public health officials, deplatforming of dissenting voices, and professional accreditation bodies threatening the livelihoods of doctors and scientists who broke ranks. The conversation turns to the Texas border standoff with the Biden administration, with Kelly warning that an escalation involving shots fired could give the federal government pretext to invoke insurrection/civil-war framing and further suspend constitutional protections. Both express skepticism that any COVID-era officials will face accountability, and Kelly declines to predict the 2024 election outcome, citing entrenched partisan divides and unresolved legal proceedings against Trump.

“What the FBI did is concoct a kidnapping assassination scheme for Gretchen Whitmer... The FBI put this together, stitched this group of men together who had protested at the Capitol... The FBI ran at least a dozen informants known as confidential human sources into this group, lure these men into this trap.”

“I talk about it all the time on the podcast about how afraid I am of mob action... you know, just when you get a group of people together and they feel like injustice is going on, you can't control them. They will burst out.”

“Anyone who is out there vocal against this government, especially Department of Justice, surely is under some sort of surveillance. I'm quite sure that I am... So anyone who challenges this government, this regime, the Democratic Party, and certainly the administrative state... you are gonna be on a list.”

Key moments

• Kelly details the FBI's Whitmer kidnapping plot, revealing at least 12 informants and 3 undercover agents, including one posing as an explosives expert who staged a fabricated bomb-explosion video (institutions).
• Two convicted men received 19 and 22-year sentences and are held in supermax prisons; Kelly notes their co-defendants who took plea deals changed their stories under cross-examination (trust, institutions).
• Vance and Kelly discuss how professional medical/scientific accreditation bodies threatened dissenting doctors' licenses during COVID, suppressing debate over masks, ivermectin, and lockdowns (institutions).
• Kelly recounts New York Times' retracted claim that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was "bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher" — later revealed to be false, with no accountability for the outlet (institutions, mob).
• Kelly contrasts the DOJ's harsh January 6th prosecutions (up to seditious conspiracy charges) against dropped charges and settlements for Lafayette Square BLM rioters who assaulted police and tried to scale the White House fence (mob, institutions).
• Vance names his recurring fear of "mob action," tying it to both BLM riots and the volatile Texas border standoff.
• Kelly warns that a violent escalation at the border could let the federal government invoke "insurrection" language to suspend constitutional protections (windows, institutions).
• Kelly declines to predict the 2025 election outcome, citing unresolved Trump trials and entrenched partisan opposition on both sides.

Notable quotes

“What the FBI did is concoct a kidnapping assassination scheme for Gretchen Whitmer... they run this other undercover agent in, he is the explosives expert... he shows them a video of an SUV blowing up. The video was made by the FBI.”

“You had rioters, BLM George Floyd rioters at Lafayette Square... trying to scale the fence of the White House... What happened to those rioters? The same DC US attorney... dropped all charges.”

“If for some reason this battle on the border were to take a turn, there was some sort of shots fired... now all of a sudden the language... gives them the ability to say, oh, we're in a civil war, which means we now can suspend the Constitution.”

“This is the Brian Sicknick story... the New York Times wrote... a capitol police officer had been murdered by Trump supporters bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher... Did anyone at the New York Times get fired for that? No.”