Two men accused of masterminding a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer before the 2020 presidential election will face a new jury after the case ended in a mistrial and humiliation for the FBI earlier this year.
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. will be retried in August, a federal judge ordered, brushing aside their lawyer’s bid to clear them of conspiracy and weapons charges. Even though the same jury acquitted alleged co-conspirators Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta after their defense argued that they were entrapped by undercover agents. The judge said it was not clear how the jury perceived the roles of Fox and Croft.
“We don’t know what the jury was thinking,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said. “There’s enough here to say that a rational jury could still go against Mr. Fox, go against Mr. Croft, even considering the outcome with respect for Mr. Harris and Mr. Caserta.”
Two Acquitted in Whitmer Case, FBI Misconduct Central
In a huge defeat for the U.S. Department of Justice, a jury today acquitted two men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the fall of 2020. pic.twitter.com/ulVnrPc8J7— Kyle L Smith (@KyleLSmith3) June 26, 2022
Harris and Caserta, alleged co-conspirators of Fox and Croft, were found not guilty in the trial, which ended in April.
Fox, 38, and Croft, 46, were part of a militia called “Wolverine Watchmen” that allegedly planned to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home. They were allegedly motivated by anger at Whitmer’s COVID mandates. The FBI claimed the plot existed before it placed informants inside the militia, but defendants contended it was the informants who spurred the plan.
Two other suspects, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, plead guilty in connection with the plot. Garbin was sentenced to six years in prison, and Franks has not yet been sentenced
The plot was exposed just prior to the election, and much of the media painted the militia members as emblematic of then-President Donald Trump’s base. Biden claimed the plot revealed Trump’s “tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one.” When the arrests were announced, Whitmer denounced Trump for inciting “domestic terrorism.
Prosecutors claimed the defendants had planned to take over the Michigan statehouse to spark a second American civil war stop Biden from becoming president.
But even before the trial, cracks in the FBI’s case began to emerge. Robert Trask, the lead FBI agent in the kidnapping case, was fired after he allegedly beat his wife during an argument over an orgy. Two other key FBI agents were sidelined from the case after misconduct claims.
At trial, key undercover operatives were revealed to have been paid large sums of money for their roles in the case, including Stephen Robeson, an FBI informant with a long criminal record who defense attorneys said helped push the plot. Another FBI informant, Dan Chapel, was paid $54,000 by the bureau and became second-in-command and masterminded the military training for the group.