TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) – A grand federal jury has accused six men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in what investigators say was a conspiracy by anti-government extremists angry over their coronavirus policies .
The indictment released Thursday by U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge imposed the conspiracy charge against Adam Dean Fox, Barry Gordon Croft Jr., Ty Gerard Garbin, Kaleb James Franks, Daniel Joseph Harris and Brandon Michael-Ray Caserta. All are from Michigan, except Croft, who lives in Delaware.
The indictment carries a maximum life sentence, Birge said in a statement.
The six were arrested in early October following an FBI investigation into an alleged plot to kidnap the Democratic governor at her vacation home in northern Michigan.
Defense attorneys have said their clients were “big speakers” who had no intention of following the alleged plan.
The indictment repeats allegations made during an October hearing, where Agent Richard Trask testified that the men were related to paramilitary groups.
Fox and Croft attended a June meeting in Dublin, Ohio, at which the possible kidnapping of governors and other actions were discussed, according to the indictment. During the hearing, Trask said Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam was among those mentioned as potential targets.
He says Fox later met with Garbin, a leader of a Michigan group called the “Wolverine Watchmen,” at a rally outside the Michigan Capitol in Lansing. At a meeting in Grand Rapids, the two men and other Watchmen members agreed to work together “toward their common goals,” the document says.
He describes “field training exercises” and other preparations, including monitoring Whitmer’s vacation home and exchanging encrypted messages.
During a training event, “they practiced team building assault and discussed tactics to combat the governor’s security details with improvised explosive devices, a projectile launcher and other weapons,” the indictment says.
They also discussed the destruction of a highway bridge near Whitmer’s home to prevent law enforcement from responding, he says.
The indictment says that in an email, Caserta wrote that if the men met with police during a reconnaissance mission, “they should give officers a chance to leave and kill them if they did not comply.”
They were arrested after four members scheduled a meeting Oct. 7 in Ypsilanti, west Detroit, to meet with an undercover FBI agent and buy explosives and other supplies, according to the indictment.
Eight other men who are said to be members or associates of Wolverine vigilantes are charged before state courts with charges that include material support for terrorist acts. Some of them are accused of participating in the alleged plot against Whitmer.
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