The trial of four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, due to resume on Monday, was delayed until at least Thursday after a “key participant” contracted COVID.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker ordered a postponement on Sunday but did not provide any further details about the identity of the COVID patient. It is unclear if this is one of the suspects or the lawyers involved in organizing the trial, and there have been no further updates on their condition.
Undercover FBI agents and informants were due to testify in the coming weeks at the Gerald F. Ford Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as were two accomplices who pleaded guilty before trial as prosecutors build their cases against the four defendants accused in a plot to kidnap Whitmer.
The trial may take more than a month. Four men accused of a kidnapping conspiracy — Barry Croft Jr., Adam Fox, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta — were planning to kidnap Gov. Whitmer from her Birch Lake vacation home because they were outraged by the COVID restrictions she had imposed.
Testifying last week, prosecutors attempted to refute the defense’s claims that the four were trapped by tricking the FBI into joining a kidnapping plot that they otherwise wouldn’t have come up with.
These photos, provided by the Kent County Sheriff and the Delaware Department of Justice, show two of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Barry Jr. (left) was heard wanting to “terrorize people”. Right people. People who terrorize my people,” in an audio recording played in court on Thursday.
Two other defendants in the high-profile case are Brandon Caserta (left) and Daniel Harris (right). Gov. Whitmer blamed former President Donald Trump for the rise in right-wing hatred, of which all four men were a part.
Four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reportedly tried to kidnap a Democrat from her vacation home in Birch Lake after telling an FBI informant.
Prosecutors laid the groundwork for their case by calling FBI investigators to explain how they obtained the hidden tapes and social media posts. They introduced some of these key pieces of evidence.
On Thursday, jurors heard for the first time a tape by one of the defendants that specifically referred to the kidnapping of the Democratic governor. Croft Jr. was heard to say that Whitmer had to be “quickly and accurately grabbed.”
Jurors heard him and defendant Adam Fox rant in messages and social media posts about alleged government abuse and say violence was a legitimate response. Prosecutors say Croft and Fox were the ringleaders of the conspiracy.
In an entry made by a government informant during a mid-July 2020 meeting in Wisconsin, Croft Jr. describes the possibility of using explosives to “hit” law enforcement “with a team preparing” to kidnap Whitmer.
He adds, without giving details, that it should be a “quick and accurate capture” of the governor.
The jury even heard the sound of Croft’s explosives test. He was later heard talking almost giddy about the damage it could cause, saying that it would be “devastating” and that he also planned to blow up a nearby bridge to slow down the police response.
Chief Judge Robert Jonker of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan has adjourned Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s trial after a “key participant” was exposed to COVID-19.
The sound, played in a federal courtroom in Grand Rapids, Michigan, marked the first time that a jury heard the defendant speak specifically about Whitmer’s kidnapping.
In other entries, Croft and Fox mentioned Whitmer and spoke excitedly about activities that terrorize people.
“I’ll strike soon,” Croft is heard speaking during a June 6, 2020, anti-government activists’ pivotal meeting in Ohio, according to prosecutors. “I’m going to terrorize people. Right people. People who terrorize my people.
A little later, in an audio recording recorded by an FBI informant, Fox is also heard pitching ideas and telling the group, “You need to take hostages. Here is your value.
FBI agent Todd Reineck testified earlier on Thursday that the men were arrested in the fall of 2020 because there were “real fears they might get real military explosives.”
He also testified to the men’s social media posts and messages, including some months before any contact with FBI agents or informants.
“I want to bring formal charges against our governor and the tyrants in our state. … Let’s do something … bold,” Fox said in a Facebook video in December 2019.
In it, Fox periodically laughs and curses at the government while brandishing two AR-style assault rifles in front of the camera.
In a separate entry from June 2020, Fox ranted about the pandemic restrictions the governor had placed on gyms.
“That tyrant bastard does this all the time… There is no reason gyms can’t open now,” he said. “I don’t understand… It’s very frustrating.”
Shortly thereafter, Fox contacted an FBI informant and allegedly told him what he wanted to do with Whitmer.
“I want the governor bound hand and foot, laid on a table while we all pose like we just ran the biggest fucking drug business in the world, bro,” Fox allegedly said during a secretly recorded conversation.
Fox’s attorney, Christopher Gibbons, questioned Reineck about the process of paying cash to informants, screening them before going undercover, and the choice of electronic devices they used.
Reineck also admitted under Gibbons’ interrogation that Fox was involved in some legal protests at the Michigan Capitol.
During opening statements Wednesday, defense attorneys said the FBI tricked the men into participating in the plot to kidnap Whitmer and U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker allowed them to appeal to the entrapment defense.
Trapping is a high-risk defense because it is an admission that crimes may have been committed.
Croft’s lawyer said the informants secretly signed the men up when virtually everyone was “rock-filled, completely out of their mind,” leading to fanciful ideas, including using a kite to transport Whitmer.
Authorities said the text messages included images of the conspirators who were monitoring the property Whitmer owned.
“They knew it was crazy talk, not a plan,” Joshua Blanchard said of the FBI.
Harris’ lawyer, Julia Kelly, said the former Marine liked an FBI informant named “Big Dan” because he posed as a guns training instructor.
“Big Dan was the leader,” she told jurors. “How to shoot from a car? Yeah, go and ask Big Dan. This is what Daniel was looking for in the summer of 2020.”
Caserta’s lawyer, Michael Hills, said the training sessions on the Michigan and Wisconsin attacks were “Fed-sponsored events.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth said the evidence would prove the defendants’ desire to commit violence no matter what the whistleblowers did or suggested, telling jurors that the men were “willing and eager” and were preparing for the crime “long before law enforcement intervened.”
“If the defendant was already ready to commit a crime, this is not a provocation,” Roth said.
He described Fox and Croft as masterminds of the plot and said the four wanted to create “a war zone here in Michigan”.
In one entry, Croft says that Whitmer should be “hanged”. After Croft was arrested in October 2020 on the East Coast while delivering at his job as a truck driver, agents discovered a $353 receipt, which an FBI agent described as “mortar-style fireworks.” which, he says, could become a homemade bomb if stuffed full of pennies.
“It wasn’t all talkers,” Roth said. “These were people who wanted to separate themselves from the people who are all talking.”
Caleb Franks, 27, pictured with a silenced assault weapon, pleaded guilty in February to a kidnapping conspiracy against Whitmer and will testify for the prosecution.
Two critical insiders, Ty Garbin and Caleb Franks, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and are expected to testify for the government.
In 2020, Whitmer traded taunts with then-President Donald Trump about his administration’s response to COVID-19. Meanwhile, her critics regularly protested outside the Michigan Capitol, littering the streets around the State House and legally smuggling semi-automatic rifles into the building.
Whitmer, who is up for re-election this year, rarely speaks publicly about the case and is not expected to attend trial. She accused Trump of fomenting mistrust and fueling anger over coronavirus-related restrictions, as well as refusing to condemn hate groups and right-wing extremists like those accused of conspiracy. She said he was also involved in the deadly uprising at the Capitol on January 6th.