FBI halt organized plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
The feds revealed it intervened in an organized plan to kidnap the state leader in an effort to overthrow the government.
A plot to overthrow the government centered around the kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was stopped by the FBI.
The conspiracy stopped by federal agents included multiple members of an organized group who sought to violently take over the government, The Detroit News reported. At least six people were arrested in the plan that involved in-person meetings and social media chatter, according to the FBI.
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“The group talked about creating a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient,” the FBI agent wrote.
“They discussed different ways of achieving this goal from peaceful endeavors to violent actions. At one point, several members talked about state governments they believed were violating the U.S. Constitution, including the government of Michigan and Governor Whitmer.
An affidavit filed in a federal court named Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta as the six men involved in the kidnapping conspiracy. The men’s ages and hometowns were not identified.
In June, Croft, Fox, and 13 others from multiple states held a meeting in Dublin, Ohio, a suburban city near Columbus, The Detroit News found. The home of Garbin, age 24, was raided by agents in Hartland Township late Wednesday. The affidavit comes during a continued investigation into the death of a Detroit man killed during a shootout with FBI agents.
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To recruit members, Fox reached out to an unnamed “militia” group based in Michigan, already being followed by the FBI. The FBI interviewed a member who revealed a plan to target and kill police officers who in-turn became a “confidential source.”
As an FBI informant, he attended the meeting and recorded the conversation in exchange for a monetary reward. The group discussed plans to establish a new society and their dissatisfaction with the current state and federal protocol.
The social media activity of the men involved also revealed possible motives behind their disgruntled efforts. Fox uploaded a video to Facebook in June, where he complained about the state’s judicial system and COVID-19 restrictions on gyms operating in Michigan.
“Fox referred to Governor Whitmer as ‘this tyrant b—-,’ and stated, ‘I don’t know, boys, we gotta do something,” the court affidavit said. “You guys link with me on our other location system, give me some ideas of what we can do.”
“The lockdown has been a lightning rod for anti-government extremists in this country, and Gov. Whitmer has been on the forefront of their targeting,” said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism to the news outlet.
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