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“This is
a
dangerous
trend
that is
happening.
We
cannot
let it
become
normalized
and I do
hope
that
anyone
that’s
out
there
plotting
to hurt
their
fellow
Americans
is held
accountable,”
Whitmer
said at
the
Michigan
Democratic
Party’s
convention
in
Lansing.
(AP
Photo/Carlos
Osorio) |
| |
2 men
convicted
in
federal
court in
plot to
kidnap
Michigan
Gov.
Whitmer
By JOEY
CAPPELLETTI
and ED
WHITE
apnews.com
GRAND
RAPIDS,
Mich. -
A jury
on
Tuesday
convicted
two men
of
conspiring
to
kidnap
Michigan
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
in 2020,
delivering
swift
verdicts
in a
plot
that was
broken
up by
the FBI
and
described
as a
rallying
cry for
a U.S.
civil
war by
anti-government
extremists.
The
result
was a
big
victory
for the
U.S.
Justice
Department.
A
different
jury
just
four
months
ago
couldn’t
reach
unanimous
decisions
on Adam
Fox or
Barry
Croft
Jr. but
acquitted
two
other
men, a
stunning
conclusion
that led
to a
second
trial.
Their
arrests
nearly
two
years
ago came
at an
extremely
tense
time:
the
volatile
homestretch
of the
election
between
Joe
Biden
and
then-President
Donald
Trump
playing
out
against
a
backdrop
of armed
protests
over
COVID-19
restrictions,
especially
in
Michigan.
Jury
selection
in the
retrial
of Fox
and
Croft
coincidentally
occurred
a day
after
FBI
agents
searched
Trump’s
Mar-a-Lago
estate
for
documents,
putting
the
agency
in
headlines
at the
same
time
that the
judge
was
trying
to
detect
any
biases
about
law
enforcement
in the
jury
pool.
Fox and
Croft
were
convicted
Tuesday
of two
counts
of
conspiracy
related
to the
kidnapping
scheme
and
attempts
to use a
weapon
of mass
destruction.
Prosecutors
said
they
wanted
to blow
up a
bridge
to
disrupt
police
if the
abduction
could be
pulled
off at
Whitmer’s
vacation
home.
Croft,
46, a
trucker
from
Bear,
Delaware,
was also
convicted
of
another
explosives
charge.
The jury
deliberated
for
roughly
eight
hours
over two
days.
“Today’s
verdicts
prove
that
violence
and
threats
have no
place in
our
politics
and
those
who seek
to
divide
us will
be held
accountable.
They
will not
succeed,”
said
Whitmer,
a
Democrat,
who
turned
51 years
old on
Tuesday.
“But we
must
also
take a
hard
look at
the
status
of our
politics,”
she
added.
“Plots
against
public
officials
and
threats
to the
FBI are
a
disturbing
extension
of
radicalized
domestic
terrorism
that
festers
in our
nation,
threatening
the very
foundation
of our
republic.”
Law
enforcement
officials
across
the
country
have
been
warning
about an
increase
in
threats
and the
potential
for
violence
against
agents
or
buildings.
Fox and
Croft,
who face
sentences
of up to
life in
prison,
just
stared
at the
jury as
the
verdicts
were
read.
Defense
attorney
Christopher
Gibbons
shook
his head
while
another
defense
lawyer,
Joshua
Blanchard,
removed
his
glasses.
Jurors
declined
to speak
to
reporters.
“It’s
been a
good
fight.
We were
hoping
for a
different
outcome,”
Gibbons
said.
During
closing
arguments
Monday,
a
prosecutor
had a
blunt
message:
No one
can
strap on
an AR-15
rifle
and body
armor
and
snatch a
governor.
“But
that
wasn’t
the
defendants’
ultimate
goal,”
Assistant
U.S.
Attorney
Nils
Kessler
said.
“They
wanted
to set
off a
second
American
civil
war, a
second
American
Revolution,
something
that
they
call the
boogaloo.
And they
wanted
to do it
for a
long
time
before
they
settled
on Gov.
Whitmer.”
The
investigation
began
when
Army
veteran
Dan
Chappel
joined a
Michigan
paramilitary
group
and
became
alarmed
when he
heard
talk
about
killing
police.
He
agreed
to
become
an FBI
informant
and
spent
the
summer
of 2020
getting
close to
Fox and
others,
secretly
recording
conversations
and
participating
in
drills
at
“shoot
houses”
in
Wisconsin
and
Michigan.
The FBI
turned
it into
a major
domestic
terrorism
case
with two
more
informants
and two
undercover
agents
embedded
in the
group.
Evidence
showed
the
group
had many
gripes,
particularly
over
stay-at-home
orders
and
other
pandemic
restrictions
imposed
by
Whitmer.
Fox,
Croft,
and
others,
accompanied
by the
government
operatives,
traveled
to
northern
Michigan
to see
Whitmer’s
vacation
home at
night
and a
bridge
that
could be
destroyed.
Ty
Garbin
and
Kaleb
Franks,
too,
were on
that
ride.
They
pleaded
guilty
and
testified
for the
prosecution.
Whitmer
was not
physically
harmed;
six men
were
arrested
hours
away
from her
home in
October
2020.
David
Porter,
who
leads
the FBI
in
western
Michigan,
hailed
the
verdicts.
“Here in
America,
if you
disagree
with
your
government
you have
options.
... What
you
cannot
do is
plan or
commit
acts of
violence,”
he said
outside
the
courthouse.
Defense
attorneys
tried to
put the
FBI on
trial,
repeatedly
emphasizing
through
cross-examination
of
witnesses
and
during
closing
remarks
that
federal
players
were
present
at every
crucial
event
and had
entrapped
the men.
Fox and
Croft,
they
said,
were
“big
talkers”
who
liked to
smoke
marijuana
and were
guilty
of
nothing
but
exercising
their
right to
say vile
things
about
Whitmer
and
government.
“This
isn’t
Russia.
This
isn’t
how our
country
works,”
Blanchard,
Croft’s
attorney,
told
jurors.
“You
don’t
get to
suspect
that
someone
might
commit a
crime
because
you
don’t
like
things
that
they
say,
that you
don’t
like
their
ideologies.”
Gibbons
said the
FBI
isn’t
supposed
to
create
“domestic
terrorists.”
He
described
Fox, 39,
as poor
and
living
in the
basement
of a
Grand
Rapids-area
vacuum
shop,
which
was a
site for
meetings
with
Chappel
and an
agent.
Hours
after
the
verdicts,
U.S.
District
Judge
Robert
Jonker
unsealed
his Aug.
14
findings
about a
juror.
Blanchard
had
disclosed
early in
the
trial
that his
office
took a
call
from
someone
who said
the
juror
was
eager to
get
picked
and
would
vote to
convict.
“The
juror
repeatedly
and
consistently
denied
making
any such
statements,”
said
Jonker,
who,
with
staff,
spoke to
the
person
in
private.
“Based
on the
court’s
observation
of the
juror’s
demeanor
and
behavior,
these
responses
were
credible.”
In
separate
but
related
cases,
eight
other
men
linked
to the
kidnapping
scheme
are
being
prosecuted
by the
Michigan
attorney
general
in state
courts.
Whitmer
in 2020
blamed
Trump
for
stoking
mistrust
and
fomenting
anger
over
coronavirus
restrictions
and
refusing
to
condemn
hate
groups
and
right-wing
extremists
like
those
charged
in
Michigan.
On Aug.
6, three
days
before
jury
selection,
Trump
told
conservative
activists
that the
kidnapping
plan was
a “fake
deal.”
___
Find the
AP’s
full
coverage
of the
kidnapping
plot
trial:
https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
___
White
reported
from
Detroit.
___
Follow
Ed White
at
http://twitter.com/edwritez
Advertise With Us:
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