United States District Court · W.D. Michigan · Case No. 1:20-cr-183 · Appeals pending
Exhibit 01 SA Jayson Chambers → CHS · text message
“Mission is to kill the Governor, specifically.”
Kidnap and Kill
A documentary by Christina Urso · In production
Fourteen arrests
made the headline.
In October 2020, the FBI announced the arrests of fourteen men they claimed were plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. What entered the court record afterward is a different story.
Defense filings identified at least twelve confidential informants and two undercover agents who were given access to taxpayer funds to purchase alcohol, ammunition, vehicles, drugs, and explosives. In under seven months, one FBI handler exchanged 3,236 text messages with the informant at the center of it all.
- 14
- men charged, state & federal
- 3,236
- texts between one handler & his informant
- 5
- acquitted at trial
- 3
- state convictions vacated on appeal, 2026
U.S. District Court, Grand Rapids · Newaygo County Jail
Independent · Crowd-funded
Help finish
the film.
There is no studio behind this film. It gets finished the same way it got made, by the people who fund it.
- Finishing the edit
- Courtroom & archival licensing
- Sound mix and color
- Independent release
Film campaign givesendgo.com/radixverum
The film
Who built the plot?
Kidnap and Kill: An FBI Terror Plot examines the government’s use of confidential informants, undercover agents, and counterterrorism tactics in the case behind the 2020 arrests.
It is not a film about one governor, one militia, or one election. It is about the line between investigating a crime and creating one.
“Producer. Director. Script writer. Choreographer.”
Five men are
still in prison.
Two are in a federal supermax. Three had their convictions vacated in 2026 and remain incarcerated while the State appeals. All five can receive letters.
Letters reach places headlines do not.
Choose a name.
Write a letter.