One of the men who played a key role in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison Wednesday, the longest sentence yet for a federal defendant in one of the most watched domestic terrorism cases in the country.
Defendant Barry Croft Jr. was likened to Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. A prosecutor also referred to Croft as the American version of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the man who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Croft and co-defendant Adam Fox were convicted in August of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and to use a weapon of mass destruction to attack Whitmer in 2020. The governor was the target of far-right rage in 2020 after she imposed lockdowns in the state to stop the spread of COVID.
Whitmer was never physically harmed as the plot was stopped by the FBI who secretly infiltrated the group and arrested 14 people. Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker.
"I do think of Mr. Croft as the more seriously culpable … more so than even Mr. Fox," Jonker said. "I think he was the person who gave Mr. Fox something to grab on to."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said Croft has been "thoroughly radicalized" and "hasn't changed his viewpoint," and therefore needs to be sent away for an extended period of time to protect the public.
Kessler said Croft was "the ideas guy" and was as harmful as any foreign terrorist.
"He's the spiritual leader of this group, of this movement the same way some Sheikh in ISIS or Al Qaeda might be," Kessler said. "And they don't have to be tactically sound or somebody who is the best guy with a gun on the battlefield — he was the ideas guy."
However, defense attorney Josh Blanchard asked the judge to consider his client's long history of mental illness and drug abuse, getting emotional as he described Croft's childhood.
"His mother suffered from bipolar disorder that's so significant and unmanaged that she had Social Security disability for it," Blanchard said. "His father, who has been described as cold and detached, puts aluminum foil on his ceiling in his bedroom so aliens can't reach his brain waves. I say all of this to say that Mr. Croft needed some intervention."
Fox and Croft met at a summit in Ohio in 2020 with other far-right individuals to "put eyes" on Whitmer's vacation home, according to evidence.
"People need to stop with the misplaced anger and place the anger where it should go, and that's against our tyrannical ... government," Fox said in the spring of 2020, fueled by the anger of perceived threats to gun ownership and pandemic restrictions.
At the time, Fox was living in the basement of a Grand Rapids-area vacuum shop, where he met with members of a paramilitary group, including an undercover FBI agent. His lawyer described him as depressed and anxious, smoking marijuana daily.
Fox was a member of the "Boogaloo movement," a group that seeks to overthrow the American government. He attended training sessions with heavy weaponry and went on scouting missions to Whitmer's vacation home, the site of the planned kidnapping, in the months leading up to his arrest.
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"They had no real plan for what to do with the governor if they actually seized her," Kessler said in a court filing prior to Fox's hearing. "Paradoxically, this made them more dangerous, not less."
Two other men pleaded guilty to conspiracy and testified against Fox and Croft, receiving substantially shorter sentences. Ty Garbin has already served his 2 1/2-year prison term, and Kaleb Franks was given a four-year sentence.
"The conspirators might easily have killed the governor in a botched kidnapping, killed unsuspecting law enforcement during a traffic stop or other unexpected encounter, or blown up innocent bystanders with a negligently constructed bomb," a sentencing memo by federal prosecutors read.
Fox's attorney, Christopher Gibbons argued for a lesser sentence by claiming that his client talked a big game, but that he had no real ability to pull off the attack. He said that the FBI preyed on Fox by pretending to be his friend and luring him into a plot he would have never been able to plan himself. Gibbons also wrote that prosecutors used "exaggerated language to create the false narrative of a terrifying paramilitary leader."
"Adam Fox was an unemployed vacuum repairman who was venting his frustrations on social media but abiding by the laws of the State of Michigan," Gibbons wrote in a sentencing memo.
The judge explained his decision not to issue Fox the life sentence that prosecutors were initially aiming for. Jonker explained that Fox did not seem to be a natural leader, and that his tactical skills were limited. He added that due to law enforcement's presence in the group, the plot had little chance of success.
The prosecution had challenges during the case as these decades long convictions required that the jury trust a widespread FBI investigation with several undercover operatives.
One of the agents on the case was fired by the bureau last year after being charged with domestic violence, and another, who served as a key informant, tried to build a private security consulting firm based off some of his work for the FBI, according to a Buzzfeed News report. However, jurors did not hear details about these incidents.
Jonker, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush, applauded the work of federal law enforcement when announcing the sentence.
"They were there early," Judge Jonker said of the FBI, "and we should be thankful they were there early." He also said that he saw no support for the claims that defendants were entrapped by law enforcement.
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