US judge orders toughest prison sentence so far in plot to kidnap Michigan governor
- Barry Croft was sentenced to 19 years and seven months for his role in a far-right militia plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer over Covid policies
- Croft’s fellow militia leader, Adam Fox, was sentenced a day earlier to 16 years in prison. Both were found guilty of charges including kidnapping conspiracy
The co-leader of a far-right militia plot to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison on Wednesday, the toughest sentence yet in the case.
Barry Croft, 47, was convicted in August as one of the architects of the 2020 plan to kidnap the Democratic governor in retribution for her Covid-19 quarantine policies – and more broadly in hope of fomenting a civil war.
Croft was the final defendant to learn his fate in the case, after his fellow militia leader, 39-year-old Adam Fox, was sentenced a day earlier to 16 years in prison.
Both were found guilty of kidnapping conspiracy, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and other charges, according to a statement from the US Justice Department.
“Croft and others intended to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids, Michigan, and use the destructive devices to facilitate their plot by harming and hindering the governor’s security detail and any responding law enforcement officers,” the statement said.
“They specifically explored placing a bomb under an interstate overpass near a pedestrian boardwalk,” it said.
The plot never got very far as federal law enforcement followed it with the help of multiple informants in the group, whose members dubbed themselves the Wolverine Watchmen.