The FBI found flexible plastic handcuffs, a tactical vest, at least three firearms, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at the home of the alleged ringleader in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Authorities also seized a gas mask, zip ties, knives, and binoculars as they carried out a search warrant of the basement Adam Fox was living in prior to his October 2020 arrest, FBI special agent Brian Clark testified Friday in federal court.
Fox and his three co-defendants, Barry Croft Jr., Brandon Caserta, and Daniel Harris, face up to life in prison if found guilty of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer.
STAR WITNESS DETAILS METICULOUS PLANNING BEHIND WHITMER KIDNAPPING PLOT
Defense lawyers argued prior to the trial that their clients, who are members of far-right anti-government militia groups, were set up by overzealous undercover FBI agents who manipulated their vehement disagreements with Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies into a full-fledged plot to kidnap the Democratic governor.
But two men who pleaded guilty for their involvement in the plot detailed to jurors during testimony this week the meticulous planning that they and the defendants put into the plot in late summer 2020.
Ty Garbin, who was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty in January 2021, testified Wednesday there was “no question” that he and the defendants were willing participants in the plot.
Garbin recounted a pivotal meeting he participated in at a co-defendant’s house on July 23, 2020. During the meeting, the plotters candidly acknowledged they were reaching the “point of no return” and that they wouldn’t be able to return to their families or live a normal life if they went any further in their plot.
Garbin described how the plotters practiced storming and snatching the governor using a “shoot house” he had constructed to resemble Whitmer’s vacation home. They also prepared to engage in vehicular combat with police, which they expected would try to stop them from carrying out the kidnapping.
Fox, the alleged ringleader, referred to Whitmer as the “asset” in planning discussions, Garbin said.
The plotters, Garbin said, hoped that by kidnapping Whitmer, they would block Joe Biden from winning the presidency in November 2020 and ignite a second civil war.
Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty to participating in the kidnapping plot in February just weeks before the trial began, told jurors Thursday that Fox discussed the kidnapping plan “every time I saw him.”
“I was going to be an operator,” Franks said of his role in the plot. “I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun.”
Franks added that he hoped he would have been killed during a shootout with police amid the kidnapping.
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“I no longer wanted to live,” Franks said. “A large portion of my family had died. I was struggling financially. Just wasn’t happy.”
