Neil Friske, the upbeat Michigan congressman arrested last week for allegedly assaulting a stripper, claimed he was “trapped” in his first interview since being released from prison.
Frisk was arrested June 20 after he allegedly assaulted an exotic dancer at the Deja Vu Showgirls Club, a strip club near his Lansing home, and then chased her with a gun.
“As many of you know, Congressman Friske exercises his Second Amendment rights all the time,” his campaign said on Facebook after the arrest.
Fox 2 Detroit reported, “Police have asked prosecutors to file three felony charges: one count of sexual assault, one count of assault non-sexual assault and one count of possession of a weapon. Friske has been released without charge for now as the investigation continues.”
After his release the day after his arrest, Friske said, “I am confident that this investigation will prove my complete innocence,” and denied all charges.
It’s unclear what happened before Fisk was arrested at 2:45 a.m. Lansing police denied a Washington Post public records request for video or documents related to the incident, saying disclosure would “compromise ongoing law enforcement investigative processes.”
But in his first public testimony since his release, Friske confidently said he was convinced his enemies had framed him as part of a conspiracy.
On Monday, host Tracker Randy welcomed Frisk to his radio show “Your Defending Fathers.” Randy told lawmakers that hackers had plotted to stop Frisk from defending himself earlier in the show: “I don’t know if you know this, but I was cyber-attacked in my home studio and my main on-air show was canceled at 3 a.m. on Friday morning. I had an article from the Gateway Pundit that Jim Hoft had taken and read on the radio and was trying to solicit testimony from listeners about you and your character, but they didn’t want me to talk about it on Friday.” The plot gets even more complicated.
Randy, the truck driver, continued, “Neil, the reason they don’t want me to talk about this is because of all the text message responses I got this morning.”
Asked what happened on June 20, Friske said it was clear he had been entrapped.
“The way events unfolded it was clear something was wrong. I was being framed, I was being set up. That’s the way people behave,” the agent said. “It’s really frustrating. It’s just amazing how desperate people are to go to such lengths to ruin someone.” During the interview, Friske vaguely alluded to enemies orchestrating his arrest.
These claims are consistent with a statement his campaign issued on Facebook shortly after he was handcuffed, which said the timing of his arrest was “highly suspicious” because it occurred “after an unknown phone number conducted a poll for Rep. Friske and his Deep State-linked opponent in the 107th Congressional District.”
“It just doesn’t make sense to me that someone who wants to claim to be an honest Christian can run a campaign like this and feel good about himself and still expect people to vote for him,” Friske said.
It’s unclear who Friske is suggesting is behind his arrest, but it could be Parker Fairbairn, his Republican primary rival in the 107th Congressional District, who was endorsed by Michigan Rep. Jack Bergman.
Friske remained defiant. “I know there are opponents who say I should resign and stop campaigning. I won’t do that. That’s not what God wants me to do, and that’s not the message I’m getting from my supporters. I haven’t done anything wrong. Why should I do that?” he said.
