(DailyVantage.com) – Law enforcement infiltrated a plot in 2020 in which several men conspired to kidnap Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) as the target of a politically motivated crime. Courts have subsequently convicted many of the suspects of several charges and have just handed down the most recent sentences, this time for Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.
On Tuesday, December 27, Judge Robert J. Jonker handed down a hefty sentence for 39-year-old Adam Fox. The defendant — whom a court failed to convict earlier this year — has received 16 years in prison for his part in the plot. The group intended to distract law enforcement. They considered blowing up a highway overpass while other conspirators kidnapped the governor from her summer vacation cottage.
Fox’s lawyers tried to paint a picture of a demure man incapable of carrying out the kidnapping. Yet, prosecutors said he was one of the leaders, and he hoped his actions would spark a civil war or another American Revolution. According to a Justice Department (DOJ) press release, Andrew Birge, a former US attorney, said the DOJ “will spare no effort to disrupt plots like these and hold those responsible accountable to the law.”
The following day, Barry Croft Jr., the co-conspirator found guilty alongside Fox four months ago, also received his sentence — 19.5 years behind bars.
Barry Croft Jr. was the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate, a day after ally Adam Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The two men were convicted in August of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids. https://t.co/w6UOMM2a1c
— FOX6 News (@fox6now) December 28, 2022
Fox’s sentence was the heftiest until a judge handed down Croft’s. The court found both men guilty of two conspiracy charges — to commit kidnapping and to use a weapon of mass destruction. Croft’s sentence was more significant because of his conviction on an additional weapons charge.
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