Man in Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot says he lied after arrest
Defense attorneys on Friday tried to blunt the testimony of a man who said he plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, getting him to admit that after his arrest he had referred to the group as a “bunch of jokers” just playing roles.
But Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty in February, said he had lied to the FBI because he feared going to jail for his part in a staggering scheme to grab Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan just before the 2020 national election.
Franks said he was hoping that “LARPing” — live-action role playing — would “explain the firearms ... all the stuff that was a part of the crime.”
“If you were LARPing, would you have pled guilty?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth asked.
“No,” Franks replied. He testified on the 10th day of trial for four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer: Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta. Franks agreed to cooperate with prosecutors with the hope of getting a lighter sentence in June.
He said Fox believed Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions were “tyrannical” and that the U.S. Constitution gave the men a right to strike back. Earlier in the week, another man who pleaded guilty, Ty Garbin, said a kidnapping could ignite a U.S. civil war involving antigovernment groups and possibly prevent the election of Joe Biden.
Franks’ main testimony occurred Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He described training in summer 2020 for an eventual assault on Whitmer’s second home in Elk Rapids, reinforcing testimony earlier in the week from Garbin, the first person to plead guilty.
“I was going to be an operator,” Franks said. “I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun.”
He said he stayed with the group because he was depressed and had hoped he would be killed in a shootout with police.
Defense attorneys on Friday tried to trip Franks up by highlighting inconsistencies.
“Your testimony from the last couple days has been, ‘These guys were serious.’ That’s not what you said to the FBI when you were arrested,” Croft lawyer Joshua Blanchard said. “You referred to the group as a whole as a bunch of jokers, that they’re LARPing . ... When we use that term we’re referring to people who go to the comic con to dress up as Pokemon.”