
A federal jury found two men guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
Barry Croft and Adam Fox face a maximum penalty of life in prison under the conspiracy conviction. They were also found guilty of one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Prosecutors alleged that Fox was the mastermind of the plot to kidnap Whitmer from her summer residence and that Croft participated in the plan and learned how to detonate explosives as preparation, CNN reported.
The pair’s first trial ended in a mistrial.
"There are a lot of things that are complicated today. There's one thing that's pretty simple still – kidnapping is wrong. You can't just strap on an AR-15 and body armor and go snatch the governor. You can't snatch anybody, and you certainly can't make bombs that are meant to maim and kill people. And this case is about a plot to abduct Gov. Whitmer. But that wasn't these defendants ultimate goal," Prosecutor Nils Kessler said on Monday. “They wanted to set off a second American Civil War and the second American Revolution.”
The defense had claimed entrapment, alleging that the FBI has encouraged the two men to go ahead with the plot using undercover agents and confidential informants.
Fox’s lawyer Christopher Gibbons told the jury that he had been tricked into the plan by the government main witness, a confidential informant named “Big Dan.”
"Adam Fox was not ever predisposed to the crime of kidnapping Gov. Whitmer. He talked a big game but talk is just talk. Adam Fox took no affirmative steps to achieve the ends as Special Agent Chambers and Big Dan pushed so hard to achieve," Gibbons said.
Croft's attorney Joshua Blanchard argued that the FBI had not been truthful in testimony about Croft’s role int he plot in order to convict him due to his long record of anti-government statements online.
"Now as we sat here the last couple of weeks together in the trial, the government has shown us time and time again that they don't care that Barry Croft didn't actually make an agreement to kidnap the governor. They think it's enough that some of the things that Barry says scares them," Blanchard told the jury. "They'd like to lock him up in a cage, not because he committed this crime, but because they're afraid of the things that have come out of his mouth."
Croft was also convicted of an additional weapons charge on Tuesday.