Jury acquits last three men charged in Michigan governor kidnapping plot
Three men were acquitted on Friday in the final trial connected to a scheme to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, a pandemicera plot steeped in extremist politics and domestic terrorism that saw others imprisoned for lengthy terms.
William Null, his twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor were found not guilty of providing support for a terrorist act, and a weapons charge, by a jury in northern Michigan’s Antrim county.
They were accused of scouting Whitmer’s vacation home for other members of a rightwing militia who, angered by the governor’s 2020 Covid-19 lockdown and perceived threats to gun ownership rights, planned to abduct her.
The three were the last of 14 men to face charges in state or federal court. Nine others were convicted, including the plot’s co-leaders Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr, who were sentenced to 16 years and 19 years respectively on consecutive days last December.
The 14-day trial in the same county where Whitmer has her vacation home, 185 miles north of Lansing, evoked memories of one of the darkest periods in Michigan’s history. In April and May 2020, armed militia mobs roamed the state capitol, thousands of anti-government protesters brought gridlock to the streets, and the statehouse was breached.
Emboldened by the protests, Fox, Croft and others hatched the kidnap plot. Prosecutors said Molitor and the Null brothers supported the plan by participating in military-style drills and traveling to see Whitmer’s home.
Authorities said details were thrashed out at a regional summit of anti-government extremists in Dublin, Ohio, in summer 2020. Fox, Croft and William Null were in attendance while an FBI informant also inside the gathering secretly recorded profanity-laced screeds threatening violence against public officials.
The plot was also fueled by government-imposed restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to recordings, text messages and social media posts introduced as evidence at trial.
Molitor, 39, and William Null, 41, tes
tified in their own defense, admitting they had attended gun drills and taken rides to check Whitmer’s property. But William Null said he and his brother broke away when talk turned to getting explosives. Molitor said Fox was “incredibly dumb” and wouldn’t pull off a kidnapping.
Michael Null, 41, did not testify and his lawyer took the unusual step of declining to question any witnesses during the trial. Tom Siver said Michael Null did nothing wrong.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, issued a statement reminding the public that the ringleaders of the plot had been convicted.
“While today’s verdicts are not what we hoped for, the successes we have achieved throughout these cases, in both state and federal courts, sends a clear message that acts of domestic terrorism will not be tolerated in our state,” she said.
Informants and undercover FBI agents were inside the group for months before arrests were made in October 2020. Whitmer was not physically harmed.
Nine men were previously convicted in state or federal court, either through guilty pleas or at three other trials, while two others were acquitted.
After the plot was thwarted, Whitmer
blamed then president Donald Trump, saying he had given “comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division”.