1 of 3 | Adam Fox on Wednesday was indicted on additional charges Wednesday connected to his alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Photo via Kent County Sheriff's Office/UPI |
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April 28 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed a new charge of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction against three of the six men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last fall.
Prosecutors said in the superseding indictment that the trio of Adam Fox, 40; Barry Croft, Jr., 45; and Daniel Joseph Harris, 23, had planned to blow up a bridge near Whitmer's vacation home to hinder law enforcement's response to their scheme to kidnap the governor.
Fox, Croft and Harris were charged in December along with Brandon Caserta, Kaleb Franks and Ty Garbin by a grand jury of conspiring between June 6 and Oct. 7 of last year to kidnap Whitmer, take her hostage and try her for treason over restrictions she put in place to stymie the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the document released Wednesday, Garbin, a leader of the Wolverine Watchmen militia, suggested in late August to Fox, a member of the Three Percenter movement, that they destroy a highway bridge near the governor's vacation home as part of their kidnapping scheme.
On Sept. 12, Fox and Croft, also a so-called Three Percenter, inspected the underside of the highway bridge for a place to mount explosives followed the next day by the pair with Harris detonating an improvised explosive device containing shrapnel near targets in the shape of humans as part of field training, the prosecutors said.
That same day, Fox ordered $4,000 worth of explosives from an undercover FBI agent, whom Fox, Harris, Frank and Garbin met in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Oct. 7 to put down a payment toward the explosives and other supplies, according to the indictment.
Croft and Harris were also charged Wednesday with knowingly possessing a destructive device not registered to them in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
The new charges stem from the ongoing FBI investigation into the kidnapping plot, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Garbin pleaded guilty in December and faces life in prison as do the five others if found guilty of the kidnap conspiracy charges.
Fox, Croft and Harris face life in prison for the new charge of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction while Croft and Harris each face up to 10 years for the unregistered weapons charge.
