Pete Musico (left) and Joseph Morrison, both on screen, await the court’s verdict this Wednesday in Jackson, Michigan.J. Scott Park | [email protected] (AP)
The Covid restrictions imposed in 2020 by Michigan Gov. Democrat Gretchen Whitmer prompted a group of Ultras to kidnap her as they viewed her as “tyrannical”. Although the kidnapping could have been avoided, it was one of the clearest manifestations of political violence, the direct attack on the heart of democracy that culminated in the January 6 storming of the Capitol by a horde of Trump supporters three months later. In one of the episodes in the flagship case of domestic terrorism sponsored by armed militias, a Michigan jury on Wednesday found three men guilty of collaborating in the conspiracy. The convicts are among the long dozen arrested in October 2020 and charged with state or federal crimes, conspiracy and attempted kidnapping.
The conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer, which was broken up by the FBI a month before the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors say was caused by the hostility that elements of the Republican orbit were experiencing due to the restrictions on movement imposed during the pandemic, then in its first wave . After a two-week hearing in the Jackson County Circuit Court, the jury ruled that Joseph Morrison, 28; his father-in-law, Pete Musico, 44, and Paul Bellar, 23, are guilty of gang membership, violating gun laws and providing material support to a terrorist attack. All three could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors believe Morrison, Musico and Bellar belonged to a militia called the Wolverine Watchers. The group planned to break into the governor’s vacation home, kidnap her and take her at gunpoint to a popular “trial” where she would be charged with “treason.” The three convicts, like the other detainees, expected that the action would provoke a violent uprising that would lead to civil war, according to the indictment. They also planned to storm the State Capitol, a sinister echo of what would happen at Congressional Headquarters in Washington in January.
Morrison and Musico had been accused of organizing tactical training sessions on their farm in a remote part of Michigan. Bellar was tasked with providing tactical maneuver plans, coded speech for covert communications, and ammunition.
Wednesday’s verdict was a victory for prosecutors, who argued that the three convicts had aided two others convicted of conspiracy in federal court in August. The latter’s conviction came after an inconclusive first trial due to jury disagreement. This is the most important case on domestic terrorism and the actions of armed militias in a process that has made progress but also set backs. In early April, two of the accused were acquitted, a fact that prompted complaints from Whitmer’s team about “the normalization of political violence.” Two other defendants who have cooperated with the judiciary have had their sentences reduced.
According to the Detroit News newspaper, the three men’s defense argued that they were unaware of the kidnapping plan and that their actions were protected by the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution, which enshrine, respectively, freedom of expression in assembly and the individual right to bear arms wear. According to the FBI, the threat of so-called domestic terrorism already far outweighs the risk of jihadist-inspired attacks on US soil, as demonstrated by the attack on Capitol Hill.
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe to
/p>