Two Men Convicted In Plot To Kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer

A jury found two men guilty of planning a 2020 kidnapping of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday.

Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted on two counts of conspiracy and intention to use weapons for mass destruction and could face up to life in prison. The two were originally arrested two years ago. In April, the other two defendants were acquitted when a jury couldn’t come to a verdict. The judge declared a mistrial setting Fox and Croft Jr. up for retrial.

“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,” Whitmer said in response to the decision.

“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.”

In 2020, 13 men who were members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan militia group, were all charged for their involvement in the planned kidnapping. Prosecutors said that they had trained with the goal of taking Whitmer captive and leaving her in the middle of Lake Michigan on a boat without an engine.

The plan also included blowing up a bridge to delay law enforcement. They hatched the plan in anger at the Governor for imposing COVID-19-related lockdown orders across the state, but undercover FBI agents were finally able to take the group down.