A federal jury has convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer in a plot prosecutors 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 a verdict on Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. but acquitted two other men, a stunning conclusion that led to a second trial.
Fox and Croft were convicted of two counts of conspiracy related to the kidnapping scheme and attempts to obtain 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.”
But the prosecution argued that Fox and Croft went beyond just talking and cased Whitmer’s vacation home more than once, held meetings in secret, practiced breaking-and-entering drills and prepped explosives, according to Detroit Free Press.
“You can’t just strap on an AR-15 and body armor and snatch the governor,” federal prosecutor Nils Kessler said during closing arguments, according to the Times.
In her statement, Whitmer, who is up for reelection this year, urged followers to “take a hard look at the status of our politics.”
“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,” she said in the Twitter statement. “I ran for office because I love my fellow Michiganders and my home state will all my heart. I always will. I cannot — I will not — let extremists get in the way of the work we do.”
