Three men found guilty of “providing material support for a terrorist act” in connection with the foiled plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer were sentenced to prison on Thursday.
Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were members of a paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen, that trained with Adam Fox, who was the alleged leader in the scheme, according to prosecutors. The three men were not charged with having a direct role in the plot but were also charged with gun violations and membership in a gang.
Musico was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison. Morrison, who is Musico’s son in law, was sentenced to ten years and Bellar received a seven-year sentence. They will be eligible for parole after serving those terms, according to the Associated Press.
Whitmer asked the judge to “impose a sentence that meets the gravity of the damage they have done to our democracy.”
“A conspiracy to kidnap and kill a sitting governor of the state of Michigan is a threat to democracy itself,” the governor said, adding that she is now hypervigilant in crowds and worries “about the fate of everyone near me.”
The federal government charged six other men on the federal charge of conspiracy to kidnap in connection with the plot in October 2020. Two men were acquitted by a jury, one received a prison sentence of four years and the other received a two-and-a-half year sentence.
The two others, Fox and Barry Croft, face a maximum sentence of life in prison after being convicted of the kidnapping conspiracy and one count of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. The pair allegedly devised a plot to blow up a bridge near the governor’s home to thwart the government’s response to the planned kidnapping.
Defense attorneys for Fox and Croft claimed they were set up by more than a dozen government agents and informants who “conceived and controlled every aspect” of the plot to kidnap Whitmer. They said Fox, whom they described as “isolated, broke, homeless,” and Croft, a trucker, could not have carried out the operation without the influence of undercover agents.
“In America, the FBI is not supposed to create domestic terrorists so that the FBI can arrest them,” Fox attorney Christopher Gibbons told the jury, according to ABC News. “The FBI isn’t supposed to create a conspiracy so the FBI can stand up and claim a disruption.”
“Adam Fox was not ever predisposed to the crime of kidnapping Governor Whitmer. He talked a big game but talk is just talk. Adam Fox took no affirmative steps to achieve the ends as Special Agent Chambers and Big Dan pushed so hard to achieve,” Gibbons told the jury, referring to a confidential information named “Big Dan.”
Croft’s attorney Joshua Blanchard accused the FBI of giving a false testimony in order to put Croft in jail over his internet comments.
“Now as we sat here the last couple of weeks together in the trial, the government has shown us time and time again that they don’t care that Barry Croft didn’t actually make an agreement to kidnap the governor. They think it’s enough that some of the things that Barry says scares them,” Blanchard said, the outlet reported. “They’d like to lock him up in a cage, not because he committed this crime, but because they’re afraid of the things that have come out of his mouth.”