US: Jury convicts 2 men in plot to kidnap US governor Gretchen Whitmer over COVID restrictions
Wednesday, 24 August 2022 (12:49 IST)
A US jury convicted two men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The US government says the pair were members of the far-right "boogaloo" movement and had ties to the Three Percenters militia in Michigan. A Texan member of the militia was convicted of storming the US Capitol earlier in August.
They were found guilty of conspiring to use an explosive device.
The men face the possibility of life in prison.
The verdict came four months after a federal judge in the Michigan city of Grand Rapids declared a mistrial.
In total, six men were accused of being involved in the plot. Two other defendants were found not guilty in the first trial, while two more pleaded guilty and testified against their co-defendants.
What was the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer?
Prosecutors said the accused hatched the plot in 2020 reaction to Michigan's pandemic restrictions.
According to the indictment, the pair considered Whitmer a "tyrant" and planned to kidnap her and put her on trial."
Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler said during closing arguments that the accused planned to "set off a second American Civil war" and a "second American Revolution." Kessler also accused the pair of planning to "execute" the governor.
According to prosecutors, the two men conducted surveillance outside the governor's vacation home and took pictures of a nearby bridge they planned to bring down with an explosive device.
The pair's defense lawyers accused the FBI of entrapment by infiltrating their group with informants and devising the plot to kidnap Whitmer.
Governor warns of 'radicalized domestic terrorism'
Following the verdict, Michigan's governor classified the plot and others as a "disturbing extension of radicalized domestic terrorism."
"I cannot — I will not — let extremists get in the way of the work we do," she said.
Whitmer is up for reelection in November.
The arrests of the men accused in the kidnapping plot came amid tensions ahead of the November 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Following Biden's victory, supporters of Trump staged an attack on the US Capitol. Members of far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been charged in connection with the attack.
