Jury picked, evidence next in 2nd trial in Gov. Whitmer plot
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are set to begin building their case against two men described as leaders of a 2020 scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, their second chance to get convictions after a jury couldn't deliver a unanimous verdict last spring.
Opening statements are planned for Wednesday in federal court in Grand Rapids, in western Michigan. A jury was selected Tuesday. Some people were dismissed for health reasons or for political beliefs they couldn’t set aside.
“It’s not disqualifying to have views one way or the other,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told the jury pool. “It’s disqualifying if the views become more important than what the law or the evidence is.”
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. are charged with agreeing to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat, as part of a plot to shock the country into chaos in the final days of the 2020 presidential election. They're also charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Croft faces a third charge.
Two co-defendants were acquitted in April and two more pleaded guilty.
Fox, 39, lived in the Grand Rapids area and Croft, 46, is from Bear, Delaware. They regularly communicated with other anti-government extremists who were angry with Whitmer and various public officials over COVID-19 restrictions.
The jury will hear secretly recorded conversations and see text messages and social media posts favoring violence. At the same time, defense attorneys will attack the credibility of undercover FBI agents and informants who fooled the group into thinking they were allies.
The plot to kidnap Whitmer followed training in Wisconsin and Michigan and two trips to scout her second home in northern Michigan, according to evidence at the first trial.
Lawyers for Fox and Croft will argue they...