On Tuesday, Barry Croft and Adam Fox were found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and conspiring to procure a weapon of mass destruction in an attempt to “set off a second American Civil War and the second American Revolution,” according to Prosecutor Nils Kessler. Croft was also convicted on an additional weapons charge.
The group had planned to blow up a bridge near the governor’s home in order to evade law enforcement following the planned kidnapping.
Croft and Fox now face a maximum sentence of life in prison after being convicted of kidnapping conspiracy and conspiracy to procure a weapon of mass destruction by a federal jury, which deliberated for about eight hours over the course of two days. The nine-day trial was the second trial to take place on the domestic terrorism case after the first trial in April did not reach a conviction for either Croft or Fox, while two of their co-defendants were acquitted.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) played a major role in arresting the would-be kidnappers. Joshua Blanchard, a defense attorney, argued that the FBI had entrapped and lured his client, Croft, into the kidnapping plot. Indeed, several federal operatives were involved in the investigation including an informant who was deemed “second-in-command” in the makeshift militia group.
“In America, the FBI is not supposed to create domestic terrorists so that the FBI can arrest them,” Christopher Gibbons, a lawyer for Fox, said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors argued that the FBI acted judiciously and stopped a serious threat before it could occur. Assistant Special Agent David Porter, who works at the FBI's Detroit field office, approved of the verdict as vindication that violence has no place in American democracy.
"Here in America, if you disagree with your government, you have options. You can criticize your government, you can protest, you can vote your elected officials out of office," Porter told reporters outside the courthouse. "However, what you cannot do is plan or commit acts of violence. Violence is never the answer."
The verdict comes at a time when violent threats against the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have increased following a search in former President Donald Trump’s private residence of Mar-a-Lago. The search was in an effort to regain access to government documents, including classified documents which Trump took after he left office, neglecting the Presidential Records Act, which obligates presidents to turn over all documents to the National Archives.
"This verdict brings important accountability for perpetrators of violence against public officials," said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. "Bringing these plotters to justice will cause others to think twice before engaging in similar conduct in the future."