Three members of a fringe paramilitary group were convicted on Wednesday of aiding a plot to kidnap the Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over COVID-19 restrictions they viewed as oppressive.
The plotters – Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico – were convicted of attempting to help Adam Fox perform the kidnapping after a state court trial.
The prosecution in Jackson County, a Republican stronghold west of Detroit, grew out of a sprawling state and federal investigation into the plot.
Fox and one other defendant, Barry Croft, were convicted on federal charges in August – after one other jury acquitted two other defendants and deadlocked on charges against the pair.
Within the state prosecution of Bellar, Morrison and Musico, Sunita Doddamani, an assistant attorney general in Michigan, told jurors the trio were an “organized” gang who were planning for motion.
The three far-right plotters were convicted of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of the perimeter militia group, the Wolverine Watchmen.
In a press release after the decision, Whitmer said the convictions “are further proof that violence and threats don’t have any place in our politics.”
“Those that seek to sow discord by pursuing violent plots might be held accountable under the law,” she added.
With Post Wires