Another militia member in Michigan governor kidnapping plot faces sentencing

[December 28, 2022]  By Kanishka Singh
 
(Reuters) - Another right-wing militia member convicted in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer faces several years in prison when he is sentenced on Wednesday in a U.S. District Court.

Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer reacts during her 2022 U.S. midterm elections night party in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Barry Croft Jr., 47, a member of the far-right Three Percenters militia group, was convicted in August by a federal court jury in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of plotting to abduct the Democratic governor.

Adam Fox, 39, who was also a member of the Three Percenters and was convicted of the same charges at the same trial, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday. The judge also imposed five years of supervised release beyond that sentence for Fox.

Croft and Fox were among 13 men arrested in October 2020 in the kidnapping conspiracy. Prosecutors had accused the two of conspiring to trigger "a second American Revolution" by kidnapping Whitmer.

Fox and Croft had plotted to break into Whitmer's vacation home, kidnap her at gunpoint, and take her to stand "trial" on bogus treason charges and face execution, prosecutors said.

The pair were also found guilty of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction - an explosive device that prosecutors say was intended to hinder law enforcement's response to the planned kidnapping. Croft was found guilty of an additional charge of possession of an explosive device.

Prosecutors said the plot, precipitated by the opposition of right-wing militia groups to public health measures Whitmer imposed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, was aimed at pushing the country into armed conflict as a contentious presidential race approached in November 2020.

The weapon of mass destruction involved was a bomb that prosecutors said the conspirators planned to detonate to hinder law enforcement's response to the abduction.

Whitmer, co-chairman of Joe Biden's presidential election campaign that year, had clashed publicly with then-President Donald Trump over her COVID-19 policies.

She accused Trump of fomenting political extremism by repeatedly directing heated rhetoric on the issue, including a campaign rally in Michigan where his criticism of Whitmer drew chants of "Lock her up" from the crowd.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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