Two leaders who said authorities kidnapped Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and planned to blow up the bridge have been found guilty of conspiracy.
Adam Foxx and Barry Croft Jr. were found guilty Tuesday of two counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
A trial date has not yet been announced. Fox and Croft face life in prison.
Fox, 39, and Croft, 46, were leaders of a far-right paramilitary group called the Wolverine Watchmen, which hatched plans in Fox’s basement in Grand Rapids.
The group took aim at Gov. Whitmer, who supported restrictions and stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The FBI launched an investigation after Fox and Croft received information from Army veteran Dan Chappell.
Chappelle joined the group in 2020, but turned himself in to the FBI over concerns about his violent plans. He agreed to be an informant that summer and began secretly recording the group’s meetings and conversations with Fox and Croft.
The FBI investigation eventually expanded to include another informant and two undercover agents in a cell.
Fox and Croft eventually traveled to Whitmer’s vacation home on Mackinac Island to inspect a bridge that was to be blown up with explosives.
An undercover FBI agent poses as an explosives dealer for a conspiracy.
They were joined by two other band members, Ty Garbin and Caleb Franks. Garvin and Franks eventually testified against the leaders of the prosecution.
The lawyers argued that Fox and Croft were merely “talkers” who had no intention of carrying out their plans.
They also accused the FBI of putting together a plan due to the large number of agents and informants that eventually infiltrated the group.
Fox’s attorney, Christopher Gibbons, said: “The United States should not be creating domestic terrorists for the FBI to arrest.
Prosecutors claimed that Fox and Croft were serious about the abuse.
“They wanted to start the Second American Civil War, the Second American Revolution, called Boogaloo,” said Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler. “And they wanted to do that for a long time before settling on Governor Whitmer.”
The guilty verdict came four months after other jurors could not agree on a unanimous verdict against the two militia leaders. The same jury acquitted two accomplices, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta.
Eight other men involved in the kidnapping plot have been charged by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
The failed conspiracy just weeks before the 2020 presidential election caught the attention of then-President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on August 6, the former president called the trial a “bad deal.”
“Gretchen Whitmer was in less danger than the people in this room,” Trump told supporters.
Michigan’s governor praised the conviction, saying, “Anyone who tries to divide us will be held accountable.”
“The FBI’s conspiracy and threat against government officials is a disturbing continuation of the radicalized domestic terrorism that is devastating our country and threatening the very foundation of our republic,” Whitmer said.
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Source: Metro
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