Two Men Found Guilty in Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor

A jury convicted Barry Croft and Adam Fox in the conspiracy against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Bill Pugliano/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

“You can’t just strap on an AR-15 and body armor and snatch the governor.” Most people know this without having to hear it from a prosecutor during federal criminal trial. But two Michigan men are apparently learning this lesson the hard way. On Tuesday, a jury found Barry Croft and Adam Fox guilty of conspiring to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor—the latest development in a complex, two-year-long legal saga.   

According to the FBI, Croft and Fox sought to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer back in 2020, planning to detonate explosives to interfere with any police response and to potentially ignite a full-blown civil war. Fox, according to an October 2020 FBI affidavit, said he needed “200 men” to storm the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, and take hostages, including the Governor. 

The controversial FBI investigation involved a number of informants and undercover agents who were connected to the plot, including one agent who offered to provide explosives. In an earlier trial this year, a different jury failed to reach a verdict on the charges against Croft and Fox and acquitted their co-defendants.  

Before the kidnapping plot, Whitmer had vocally criticized President Donald Trump, calling him out for demanding the arrest protesters after the death of George Floyd and for his poor response to the Covid pandemic. The two publicly feuded, with Trump frequently belittling the governor on social media. 

Shortly after the arrests in 2020, Trump weirdly took credit for the FBI thwarting the attempted abduction while also appearing to downplay the threat. At a rally in Michigan, Trump did nothing to quell the frenzied crowd chanting “lock her up” in reference to Whitmer. His only response was “lock ‘em all up.” Whitmer called Trump’s remarks disturbing and said Trump was inciting “domestic terrorism.”

“It is wrong. It’s got to end,” the governor said at the time. “It’s dangerous not just for me and my family, but for public servants everywhere.”

In a statement Tuesday, Whitmer said that the conviction shows “that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable.”

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate