Governor Kidnapping Plot

One of the five defendants involved in a plot to kidnap governor Gretchen Whitmer in Antrim County has changed his plea to guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler describes Barry Croft as the kidnap plot’s “spiritual leader."

“I am changed and my family is changed.”The words, from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, were played in a Jackson County courtroom today as a judge deliberated on the sentencing of three men convicted over their role in the plot to kidnap Whitmer in 2020. The three men, Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico were sentenced individually for their role in the plot, after being found guilty in October of providing material support for a terrorist act, being in a gang, and possessing firearms while committing a felony.

Attorneys have presented all their evidence in a Jackson County trial of three men accused of helping in the plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

A jury in Jackson County will hear more testimony this week in the trial of three men accused of assisting in the plan to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

Kaleb Franks, one of the men who pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, was sentenced to four years imprisonment today for his role in the plot.Franks received a dramatically reduced sentence because of his guilty plea, and continued cooperation with prosecutors in both the federal and state criminal trials over the plot.

Two men are asking a federal judge for a retrial after being convicted of conspiring to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

The next phase of the prosecution against a group of men accused of plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer is scheduled to begin this week in northern Michigan.

The fates of two men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer now rests in the hands of a federal jury in Grand Rapids.

Jurors will likely hear this week from a key undercover FBI informant in the case of the alleged plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.