The result was a major victory for the US Department of Justice. A different jury just four months ago could not reach unanimous verdicts for Adam Fox or Barry Croft Jr. but acquitted two other men, a surprising conclusion that led to a second trial. Their arrests nearly two years ago came at an extremely tense time: the volatile election contest between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump, against a backdrop of armed protests over COVID-19 restrictions, especially in Michigan. Jury selection in the retrial of Fox and Croft coincidentally came a day after FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for documents, putting the agency in the spotlight as the judge sought to identify possible bias regarding law enforcement. jury panel. Fox and Croft were convicted Tuesday of two counts of conspiracy related to the kidnapping plot and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors said they wanted to blow up a bridge to disrupt police if the kidnapper could be pulled from Whitmer’s cottage. Croft, 46, a trucker from Bear, Delaware, was also convicted of another explosive charge. The jury deliberated for about eight hours over two days. “Today’s verdicts prove that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable. They’re not going to make it,” said Whitmer, a Democrat who turned 51 on Tuesday. “But we also need to take a hard look at the state of our politics,” he added. “The plots against public officials and the threats against the FBI are a disturbing extension of the radicalized domestic terrorism spreading across our nation, threatening the very foundations of our democracy.” Law enforcement officials across the country have warned of an increase in threats and the possibility of violence against agents or buildings. Fox and Croft, who face sentences of up to life in prison, simply stared at the jury as the verdicts were read. Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons shook his head while another defense attorney, Joshua Blanchard, removed his glasses. The jurors declined to speak to reporters. “It was a good match. We were hoping for a different outcome,” Gibbons said. During closing arguments Monday, a prosecutor had a stark message: No one can put on an AR-15 rifle and body armor and grab a governor. “But that was not the ultimate goal of the defendants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said. “They wanted to start a second American civil war, a second American revolution, what they call a boogeyman. And they wanted to do it for a long time before they settled on Governor Whitmer.” The investigation began when Army veteran Dan Chappell joined a Michigan paramilitary group and became concerned when he heard talk of killing police. He agreed to become an FBI informant and spent the summer of 2020 approaching Fox and others, secretly recording conversations and participating in “shoot house” drills in Wisconsin and Michigan. The FBI turned it into a major domestic terrorism case with two more informants and two undercover agents on the team. The evidence showed the team had many problems, particularly with stay-at-home orders and other pandemic restrictions imposed by Whitmer. Fox, Croft and others, accompanied by government agents, traveled to northern Michigan to view Whitmer’s cottage at night and a bridge that could be destroyed. Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks were also on that ride. They pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Whitmer was not physically injured. six men were arrested hours away from her home in October 2020. David Porter, who heads the FBI in western Michigan, welcomed the verdicts. “Here in America, if you disagree with your government, you have options. … What you cannot do is plan or commit acts of violence,” he said outside the courthouse. Defense attorneys tried to put the FBI on trial, repeatedly emphasizing through witness testimony and during closing arguments that federal players were present at every critical event and had ensnared the men. Fox and Croft, they said, were “big talkers” who liked to smoke marijuana and were guilty of nothing more than exercising their right to say bad things about Whitmer and the government. “This is not Russia. That’s not how our country works,” Blanchard, Croft’s attorney, told jurors. “You can’t suspect that someone might commit a crime because you don’t like what they say, that you don’t like their ideologies.” Gibbons said the FBI is not supposed to create “domestic terrorists.” He described Fox, 39, as poor and living in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum store that was a meeting place with Chappell and an agent. Hours after the verdicts, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker unsealed his findings on Aug. 14 regarding a jury. Blanchard had disclosed early in the trial that his office received a call from someone who said the juror was willing to be selected and would vote to convict. “The juror has repeatedly and consistently denied making such statements,” said Jonker, who, with staff, spoke with the individual privately. “Based on the court’s observation of the juror’s demeanor and demeanor, these responses were credible.” In separate but related cases, eight other men connected to the kidnapping scheme are being prosecuted by the Michigan attorney general in state courts. Whitmer in 2020 accused Trump of fueling distrust and anger over coronavirus restrictions and his refusal to prosecute hate groups and far-right extremists like those charged in Michigan. On August 6, three days before jury selection, Trump told conservative activists that the kidnapping scheme was a “bogus deal.”
Find complete AP coverage of the kidnapping plot trial: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
White reported from Detroit.
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