From left: Barry Croft, Daniel Harris, Adam Fox, Brandon Caserta (Photo: Kent County Sheriff's Offices, via Fox 2)
FBI agents averted "a tragedy" in 2020 when they infiltrated a group planning to blow up a bridge near Gretchen Whitmer's vacation home to stop police from responding swiftly to an envisioned kidnapping of the governor, an assistant U.S. attorney said in federal court Wednesday.
"These were not people who were all talk. These were people who wanted to separate themselves from people who were all talk," Jonathan Roth added in his opening statement, according to ABC News.
Defendants agreed, planned, trained and were ready to break into a woman's home as she slept with her family in the middle of the night. And with violence and at gunpoint they would tie her up and take her from that home," Roth said.
"And to accomplish that they would shoot, blow up and kill anybody who got in their way."
The alleged plotters spoke of taking down "a tyrant" whose Covid policies angered them, the prosecutor told jurors in Grand Rapids. The four defendants, accused of kidnap conspiracy and other crimes, wanted to create a "war zone here in Michigan," the Justice Department lawyer added.
Evidence will include electronic messages, recorded conversations, gun drills in the woods and a night drive to northern Michigan to scout Whitmer's second home and figure out how to blow up the bridge, Roth said.
Jurors also will hear from two critical insiders, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and will testify for the government, Roth said.
"They will tell you how real this was. ... They will tell you that they’re going to prison for it," he said.
Three of four defense lawyers also gave opening remarks. Joshua Blanchard, an attorney from Greenville, Mich., who represents accused ringleader Barry Croft, said the FBI lined up an informant with a long criminal history to reach out to Croft and lure him to militia meetings and gun training in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Another informant, Blanchard said, drove Croft all the way to Wisconsin from Delaware.
"There was no plan, there was no agreement and no kidnapping," Blanchard said. ...
Lawyers for [Brandon] Caserta and [Daniel] Harris tried to distance them from [Adam] Fox and Croft, emphasizing that the pair didn’t travel to northern Michigan to scout Whitmer's home. ...
The first witness, FBI agent Todd Reineck, testified about social media posts by Fox and Croft in spring 2020, including some profanity-filled messages between the two. They included a Facebook video in which Fox stated: "We have the numbers. We have the arms. We have the ammunition ... that we need to just go take our country back."
Security was tight amid concern that militia members might show up for the trial's start, WOOD-TV reports, but none came.
A dozen jurors and six alternates were picked Tuesday after more than 40 prospects were excused from serving, tweets Dustin Dwyer of Michigan Radio.
The judge said the trial could take four to six weeks, with proceedings running from about 8:30 a.m. to about 2 p.m. each day.
Earlier article, Tuesday:
Federal Judge Robert Jonker, presiding over a trial of four defendants acused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan's governor, told potential jurors in Grand Rapids today that they must disregard views about politics, Gretchen Whitmer and her Covid policies to fairly hear the case. Some were unsure they could be impartial, Associated Press reports.
Several people were dismissed after the judge’s questions revealed that they dislike Whitmer, with one man saying: "I would probably be pretty biased."
A woman who said she is an enthusiastic supporter of the governor also was let go, as was a man who told the court: "I don't really trust the government right now." Another man was dismissed after saying he has followed news coverage of the case closely and "I think they're guilty."
Others were dismissed from the trial, which could take more than a month, due to job or home conflicts, including a nurse who worked throughout the pandemic. The woman said she finally has a trip planned and "I really want to go on vacation."
Original article, Tuesday morning:
Prospective jurors will be screened this week as a nationally watched trial starts in Grand Rapids Federal Court, where four militia members go on trial today in an alleged scheme to kidnap Michigan's governor in 2020.
In a sixth-floor courtroom, prosecutors will try to prove that four men plotted to abduct Gretchen Whitmer from her Elk Rapids second home and take her by boat to the middle of Lake Michigan, where she'd be left floating alone.
Prosecutors list 48 witnesses in the case, which could last six weeks. Among those testifying for the government are fellow defendants Ty Garbin and Caleb Franks, who pleaded guilty.
Michigan Radio sketches the background:
The plan, prosecutors say, first started coming together on June 6, 2020, when a group of "patriots" from more than a dozen states met in Dublin, Ohio, to discuss what to do about the restrictions put in place to stop the spread of a pandemic; restrictions that some among them believed were illegal.
Over the next four months, a team of undercover FBI agents and confidential informants tracked the group’s communications, recording more than 1,000 hours of audio and collecting screenshots from encrypted group chats.
According to prosecutors, the men discussed storming Michigan’s Capitol building, attacking Michigan State Police and assassinating the governor, before settling on a plan to kidnap her from her vacation home up north. They twice visited the area near her home, once in daylight and once during a nighttime reconnaissance mission. They also took pictures of a bridge nearby, which they planned to blow up in order to slow the police response.
Evidence shows an alleged training drill. (Photos: U.S. Attorney's Office)
Lawyers for kidnap conspiracy defendants Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta will argue that informants and undercover agents orchestrated the scheme.
"Each of these defendants was selected and groomed by the government’s agents and informants for their role as member of this 'conspiracy,'" attorneys for Adam Fox ... wrote in a brief to the court in February.
Fox and Croft Jr. were affiliated with a far-right movement called the Three Percenters, prosecutors say, while Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, were members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a self-styled militia with similar anti-government views.
They and 10 other men were arrested in October 2000 in the alleged domestic terrorism plot. Eight face charges in state courts.
The Detroit Free Press frames the West Michigan trial in wider context, saying it "sheds light on the growth of extremism in America."
The Whitmer trial coincides with the Jan. 6 insurrection trial, which got underway last week in Washington, D.C., as prosecutors seek to punish those who stormed the Capitol over the 2020 presidential election results.
An alleged plotter was videotaped by a federal informant during weapons training.
