August 23, 2022 12:08pm EDT
Michigan jury convicts 2 men of conspiracy to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox were convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over COVID-19 restrictions
By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi | Fox News
Two men accused of plotting to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with a bomb were found guilty Tuesday.
After beginning deliberations Monday, a jury convicted Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. of conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer. Both were also found guilty of attempting to procure a weapon of mass destruction.
The jury heard closing arguments on Monday as the government tried for a second time to secure convictions in an alleged plot to trigger a revolution in 2020.
After a nine-day trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler repeatedly urged jurors to focus on what Fox and Croft were saying months before the FBI placed undercover agents and informants inside the group that summer.
"These defendants were outside a woman’s house in the middle of the night with night-vision goggles and guns and a plan to kidnap her," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said. "And they made a real bomb. That's far enough, isn't it?"
Defense lawyers, however, portrayed Fox and Croft as "big talkers," a bumbling, foul-mouthed, marijuana-smoking pair exercising free speech and incapable of leading anything as extraordinary as an abduction of a public official. They claimed FBI agents and informants fed their outrage and pulled them into their web.
A jury in April failed to reach a unanimous verdict on Fox and Croft.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michigan-jury-convicts-2-men-conspiracy-kidnap-gov-gretchen-whitmer
