Informant Page #8

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And I agreed to that.

Michael:
I think it's pretty obvious

that during that conversation,

David was saying a lot of things

just to appease Brandon.

Brandon's comfortable,

almost thrives on confrontation.

If you challenge him,

Brandon will argue for hours.

David:

It was easier to play along.

I fell into like a role.

I had never let

my guard down with him.

I didn't want him

to think that I was scared.

You know, I ended

that conversation with him,

and I thought that was it.

I didn't want to touch

the Molotov cocktails.

I didn't even want

to think about them.

The next thing I remember,

I'm waking up to an assault

rifle to the back of my head.

Newsman:
Two Texas men are now charged

with plotting to attack police

with Molotov cocktails during the

Republican National Convention.

Newswoman:

David McKay and Bradley Crowder

could face up to

ten years in prison.

Man:
David McKay and his

co-defendant Bradley Crowder

were both charged

with three counts:

manufacturing Molotov cocktails,

possessing them,

and three was a count

which charges possession

of an unregistered

destructive device.

It was Molotov cocktails.

But under federal law,

you still have to register

those, oddly enough.

And there's even a form that

you're supposed to fill out.

Needless to say they did not fill

out the form, so they broke the law.

The U.S. Attorney's office said,

"Look you know, if you want,

we'll drop the charges, so that you don't

have to have your identity revealed.

But if we do that,

he's gonna get away with what he did."

And I didn't want him to...

you know...

and I said no... don't.

I'll testify.

And they're like, "Well,

it's gonna change your life.

It's gonna be life-changing,

it's gonna be different.

It's gonna change

where you hang out.

It's gonna change

everything about your life."

And I was like,

"I don't know."

And he was like, "So let us know,

think about it for a while."

And then I decided to do it,

you know?

I had figured out that

the informant was Brandon Darby.

I was covering one of

the early evidentiary hearings.

One of the public defenders,

in her question,

used the name Brandon.

David Hanners outed me

and my name.

And I said,

"That's not true."

And Scott said well,

then we need to do this and this,

Scott:

"I stand by Brandon Darby.

If Brandon was conning me,

and many others,

it would be the biggest lie

of my life

since I found out the truth

about Santa Claus as a child.

It's absurd."

Scott Crow called me up

and reamed me out

and called me

all kind of names,

and said "There's no way in

hell it could be Brandon Darby.

I mean he's the last guy

on earth

who would ever be a confidential

informant for the FBI."

David and Brad were saying

that Brandon was the informant.

And people were like we don't trust them.

We don't trust them.

But we got the files.

I went to Scott's house

to look at them.

He's like,

Brandon's with the FBI.

I was like...

Scott:

Was he my friend

or has he been gathering information

for the FBI a long time,

playing me for the biggest dupe

has ever happened in my life?

Brandon:
At that point I had begun to

see Scott in a very different light.

When I was younger and was

getting into radical politics,

he really took me

under his wing.

I felt like I was a lot more radical by

the time I was done knowing Scott Crow.

Interviewer:

Brandon seems to have this idea

that you radicalized him.

That you kinda

turned him towards violence.

What do you make of that?

I'm not even gonna

answer the question.

Yeah, it's like,

it's a moot point.

What's that based on,

do you think?

I mean, my answer is

Brandon's a liar.

Well, look at 200 pages

of documents that we have,

and he tried to put me

and Lisa Fithian in prison.

He tried very hard

to get me to participate

in the Republican

National Convention.

And I just refused to because

I wasn't interested in it.

I look at these documents

and he tried to put me

in prison for doing nothing.

They could never

trust him again.

And I think that was

what really hurt them,

and I think ultimately it's what

probably really hurt Brandon.

"To all concerned,

There are currently

allegations in the media

that I've worked undercover for the

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This allegation no doubt confuses

many of the activists who know me,

and probably leaves

many wondering

why I would seemingly chose

to engage in such an endeavor.

The simple truth is,

that I have chosen

to work with the Federal

Bureau of Investigation."

Somebody's who's a psychologist

did a little profile of him,

reading his letter,

and it shows,

you know,

it says his personality clearly shows

he has a lot of stress and trauma.

And my belief, it's because he's

been living a double life for years.

(laughs)

Right, what is the truth?

The Molotov cocktails would not

have been made

had it not been

for Brandon Darby.

I have no problem saying

that and I believe that.

He wasn't saying,

"Oh we should make Molotov cocktails."

But he was creating the groundwork

for something like that to happen.

David was manipulated.

I don't care

what anybody says.

You know what,

I'd put a lot of money

that those kids would not

have built those

if Brandon had never

been involved.

The idea of Molotov cocktails

came from Brandon

and it was,

"Go look on the website.

Here's the website

that I know about.

Brad what do you

think about this?

Brad thinks it's a good idea.

David what do you think about this?

I think we can do this.

Do you think

you can do this?"

"Yeah we can do it.

What do we do?"

"Well, you know,

you get the supplies.

We'll be implementing,

this is a tactic.

Call me when you're done."

Well he really got into detail there,

didn't he?

Yeah.

Michael:

That was a complete lie that David said

so that he could get off

for his crime.

The way that he rationalizes

and also Brad rationalizes

is that the government

was also lying.

They were trying to say that

they were domestic terrorists,

that they had intent to use them,

that they were planning to kill people.

And in the face of those giant lies

that made them look like monsters,

this was a minor lie.

Well, you can justify...

there's a lot of people

justifying things in this story.

(protestors cheering, chanting)

Resist! Resist!

Raise your f***ing fist!

I think that there's very legitimate

questions about whether the FBI

They have to have something to

justify thousands of riot cops,

and tear gas and mass arrests.

And sadly I think Brad and David

became that justification.

Lisa:
Who cares that a few

windows were broken in St. Paul?

The magnitude of violence our

government is wreaking on the world.

Right, I mean,

it's like the scope and scale

of what we pay attention to is

so warped in our country.

There's a time and a place for

corporate property destruction.

(cheering, glass breaks)

The fact that Brad and David

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