Introducing Season Seven of Chameleon: The Michigan Plot 03:54

It's October of 2020 and five friends are riding along in a truck on a Michigan highway on their way to grab some chicken wings, drink some beer and pick up some tactical gear. These guys have been hanging out together for months, shooting guns, talking trash and smoking a ton of weed. They're not the brightest bulbs in the box.

One of them is playing with a taser. And another keeps cocking and uncocking a pistol and putting it to the head of the driver. They pull off the highway into a parking lot and get out of the car.

Flashbang grenades explode around them as FBI agents sprint out, guns drawn. These guys' lives are about to change forever. For months, the FBI has been listening to their conversations, reading their chat messages, and watching their every move.

The government would say that these guys weren't just stone dummies. They were domestic terrorists plotting to kidnap and maybe even kill the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. My name is Ken Bensinger. And I'm Jessica Garrison. This is Chameleon, Season 7, The Michigan Plot.

A plan to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Individuals are in custody. They face felony charges of terrorism, gang membership, conspiracy to kidnap. The chilling plan. The FBI says it stopped before it could be carried out. Over seven episodes, Ken and I are going to take you on an unprecedented journey inside one of the most notorious FBI domestic terrorism investigations in a generation.

Our efforts uncovered elaborate plans to endanger the lives of government officials and the broader public. In hundreds of hours of audio that has never been heard by the public, you'll ride along in the pocket of a government spy as he infiltrates an extremist militia group. Say, if we run into the rest of the women, I don't care, dude. We're going in, me and you, and we're making that arrest. An FBI informant who goes deep undercover and gains the trust of everyone around him. Somebody sitting right here could be a fucking faggot.

and eventually becomes one of the group's leaders. This is about pointing rifles at fucking police officers and fucking politicians and squeezing the fucking trigger. We'll look for answers to the burning questions that remain about this controversial case.

Were these guys really the masterminds of a credible domestic terror plot? I'm gonna burn motherfuckers' houses down and blow shit up. Or just a group of hyped-up stoners who talk too much? Adam, it's going back to being a high dude. Did the FBI foil a legitimate plot to kidnap a sitting governor? We'll just thump her in the fucking head. We could take you for a little ride. Or did the FBI make the plot possible?

There was no plot to kidnap the fucking governor. And if there was, it was not nothing to do with my guys. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, it's Chameleon Season 7, The Michigan Plot, coming February 1st. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes. Or listen weekly, wherever you get your podcasts.