Michigan AG details extremist plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer
Group planned to burn state Capitol building
DETROIT – No one would get out of the Michigan State Capitol alive under the initial plan devised by the accused ringleader in a Michigan terrorist plot, according to the Michigan Attorney General's Office.
Adam Fox's “Plan A” wasn't just storming the building and taking hostages, as officials have already said publicly – it was to get in there and televise the execution of tyrants over t he course of a week, with no one coming out alive. Or, alternatively, lock the doors and set the building on fire.
That's according to a brief filed by the Michigan Attorney General' s Office in Jackson County's 12th District Court against the pretrial release of a man, Pete Musico, 42, of Munith, who is charged at the state level in connection to a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The brief was filed ahead of Music o' s Oct .23 bond hearing, where his bond was reduced from $10 million to $ 100,000. The AG's office released the brief to the Detroit Free Press of the USA TODAY Network after it confirmed the document did not fall under a protective order in the case.
Musico was released on bond Oct. 30 with a GPS tether, according to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.
The filing further spells out the AG's accusations, while dip ping into those against the federally charged Adam Fox, 37, of Grand Rapids. The accusations, aside from those against Fox, include:
•Mu si co once claimed to have throw na Molotov cocktail into a police officer's home
• Musico stated he tried to get a Michigan State Police trooper to touch him at a rally at the Michigan State Capitol in 2020
• The Wolverine Watchmen, the so-called “militia” group now accused in the domestic terrorism plot, was developed after a member “finished” a weapons charge
• The Wolverine Watchmen had a private Facebook group with rules that included “Boojahidden only, No feds, statist, cops, bootlickers or commies or ethnonationalist”
• A training exercise plan included taking over a hostile vehicle and ambushes
Sean Tilton, a federal public defender f or Fox, declined to comment and Kareem Johnson, Musico's attorney, declined to comment on the filing.
Johnson, at the bond hearing, fought against the perception of Musico as a dangerous man and a flight risk. He said Musico was kicked out of the group for being “too damn soft.”
His explanation and counter- arguments from the hearing can be viewed here. He also countered many of the AG's arguments in a response he filed with the court and released to the Free Press.
Fox is charged at the federal level with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He is said to have been the ringleader of the effort, which was stirred up over anger with Whitmer's orders in response to the novel coronavirus and landed on plans to kidnap Whitmer, according to officials.