A man found guilty of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said Barry Croft, Jr. was a leader in the plot against the governor along with Adam Fox, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday. Croft was convicted of conspiracy and on an explosives charge alongside Fox in August.
Croft was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison. He is the seventh man to be sentenced in connection with the plot against Whitmer. Fox was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday, and three others were sentenced in state court earlier this month. Two others were sentenced in federal court earlier this year, according to Axios.
“Although he may not have had hierarchical control over all the other participants, he coordinated and pushed the implementation of the conspiracy from its inception to its final stages,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said of Croft in a court filing, according to Fox News.
“The only remaining step was for the governor to appear at her cottage so they could launch their plan, but fortunately she was still beyond their control,” he added.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker, who handed down Croft and Fox’s sentences, described Croft as “the idea guy” and “a very convincing communicator,” according to NPR.
Two other men were acquitted earlier this year on charges of conspiring to kidnap the governor.
Croft’s attorney, Joshua Blanchard, tried to downplay his client’s role in the conspiracy and dismiss some of what Croft was recorded saying as crazy talk.
“Simply put, to the extent that the jury determined he was a participant, as they necessarily did, he was a participant to a lesser degree than others,” Blanchard said in a court filing, according to CBS News.