3 men tied to leader of Whitmer kidnap plot face sentencing

Three men who forged an early alliance with the leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor are facing potentially lengthy sentences for assisting him before the FBI disbanded the scheme in 2020

Michigan Governor Kidnapping Plot

Three men who forged an early alliance with the leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan's governor are facing potentially lengthy sentences for assisting him in the months before the FBI broke up the cabal in 2020.

Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar are returning to court for sentencing Thursday, weeks after being convicted of providing material support for a terrorist act, which carries a maximum term of 20 years, and two other crimes.

The key issue: Jackson County Judge Thomas Wilson must settle on a minimum sentence to be served before the men are eligible for parole.

Wilson presided over the first batch of convictions in state court, following the high-profile conspiracy convictions of four others in federal court. Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were described as captains of an incredible plan to snatch Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home, seeking to inspire a U.S. civil war known as the “boogaloo.”

Whitmer, a Democrat recently elected to a second term, was never physically harmed. Undercover FBI agents and informants were inside Fox’s group for months, and the scheme was broken up with 14 arrests in October 2020.

Morrison, Musico and Bellar were members of a paramilitary group known as the Wolverine Watchmen. They held gun training with Fox in rural Jackson County and shared his disgust for Whitmer, police and public officials, especially after COVID-19 restrictions disrupted the economy and triggered armed Capitol protests and anti-government belligerence.

But defense attorneys argued that the trio had cut ties with Fox before the Whitmer plot came into focus by late summer of 2020; Bellar had moved to South Carolina in July. The three men also didn’t travel with Fox to look for the governor’s second home or participate in a key training session inside a “shoot house” in Luther, Michigan.

“Mr. Bellar is clueless about any plot to kidnap the governor,” attorney Andrew Kirkpatrick said again in a court filing last week.

A jury, however, quickly returned guilty verdicts in October after hearing nine days of testimony, mostly evidence offered by a pivotal FBI informant, Dan Chappel, and federal agents. The jury agreed with prosecutors that the Wolverine Watchmen constituted a criminal gang.

Separately, in federal court in Grand Rapids, Fox and Croft face possible life sentences in two weeks. Two men who pleaded guilty received substantial breaks: Ty Garbin is free after a 2 1/2-year prison term while Kaleb Franks was given a four-year sentence. Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris were acquitted by a jury.

When the plot was foiled, Whitmer blamed then-President Donald Trump, saying he had given "comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division.” In August, after 19 months out of office, Trump said the kidnapping plan was a “fake deal.”

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White reported from Detroit. Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.