GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A federal jury Tuesday convicted two men accused of orchestrating a plan to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as prosecutors salvaged the largest domestic terrorism case in a generation that has shed light on political extremism in Michigan.
The convictions came four months after jurors deadlocked on charges against Potterville resident Adam Fox and Delaware truck driver Barry Croft and acquitted two others who were accused of being part of a broader group of people angered by pandemic restrictions and hoping to spark a second Civil War.
Two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping conspiracy charges and testified as the government's star witnesses.
Jurors spent about eight hours deliberating during two days.
The investigation and prosecution were clouded by controversy, including defense concerns about FBI agent misconduct and whether government agents entrapped the accused plotters, and drew the attention of a nation facing the rise of violent extremism surrounding the 2020 presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic. Former President Donald Trump recently called the alleged plot "a fake deal."
The result follows months of criticism from defense lawyers about FBI agent misconduct and claims that a team of investigators and informants orchestrated the conspiracy and entrapped Fox, Croft and others who were portrayed as a ragtag band of social outcasts who harbored antigovernment views and anger over COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Whitmer.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday after seven days of testimony. An undercover FBI agent told jurors about a stop at a bridge near Whitmer's northern Michigan cottage during a night ride by anti-government extremists to continue planning a kidnapping.
Fox and Croft were portrayed by prosecutors as ringleaders of the plot. They faced multiple charges, including kidnapping conspiracy and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Both are punishable by up to life in prison.
Croft also was charged with possessing an unregistered destructive device, a 10-year felony.
The defendants were arrested in early October 2020 and accused of hatching the plot due to distrust of the government and anger over restrictions imposed during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their arrests were part of a broader plot that involved more than a dozen men. Ten people are facing charges in state court.
During the trial, jurors saw secret recordings made by FBI informants of bombs being built during training exercises, defendants firing weapons, and going on a surveillance run of the governor's cottage in northern Michigan.
Defense lawyers said FBI agents and informants controlled the entire series of events and faulted prosecutors for manipulating evidence during the trial, including cherrypicking out-of-context snippets of surveillance audio and video.
The jury decision comes almost two years after FBI agents said they thwarted the Whitmer plot and as law enforcement arrested more than a dozen men in multiple states who were accused of conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Since then, two men have pleaded guilty to federal crimes while 10 others are facing state charges.
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