By Ken Zino
As the Department of Justice weighs whether to indict Donald J. Trump for his role in the January 6th Capitol insurrection, it is moving ahead by bringing others to account for domestic terrorism. A Michigan man was sentenced this week to 16 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property. A jury in an earlier trial was unable to reach a verdict. In my view, things have changed significantly in many people’s minds about the Big Lie and the associated, often violent, assaults against institutions and people as the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol presented its devastating case of what went on and who was part of it. National security also is a critical issue in Trump’s case.
Adam Fox, 39, of Wyoming, Michigan, and co-conspirator Barry Croft Jr., 47, of Bear, Delaware, were convicted by a federal jury last August after an 11-day retrial. Based on court documents and evidence presented at trial, Fox and Croft intended to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation cottage in Northern Michigan and use the destructive devices to facilitate their plot by harming and hindering the governor’s security detail and any responding law enforcement officers.
“They specifically explored placing a bomb under an interstate overpass near a pedestrian boardwalk. Croft was also convicted of possessing an improvised explosive device, which was a commercial firework refashioned with shrapnel to serve as a hand-grenade,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
“Mr. Fox, and his confederate Mr. Croft, were convicted by a jury of masterminding a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan and to use weapons of mass destruction against responding law enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s sentence reflects the Department of Justice’s unwavering commitment to protecting our elected officials, law enforcement officers, and dedicated public servants from criminal threats and violence -- and to holding the perpetrators of such acts fully accountable under the law.”
Fox is the third to be sentenced of four conspirators convicted in the plot. Croft was sentenced to more than 19 years. Co-defendant Ty Garbin, 27, of Hartland, Michigan, pleaded guilty in January 2021 and initially received a sentence of 75 months in prison. The district court later reduced to a term of 30 months, or two and a half years in prison, after fully considering his cooperation at both trials. Kaleb Franks, 28, of Waterford, Michigan, received a term of four years in prison after pleading guilty and testifying at both trials. Co-defendants Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were acquitted at the first trial in August 2022.
DOJ noted that the FBI’s Detroit Field Office investigated the case with “valuable assistance” provided by the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, including Michigan State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan charged the case and conducted the trials, with “valuable assistance provided by the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.”