Three members of the Wolverine Watchmen were hit with lengthy prison sentences Thursday in connection with the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were not charged with the kidnapping conspiracy — but convicted of providing material support for a terrorist act for training with ringleader Adam Fox.
On Thursday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson sentenced Musico to a minimum of 12 years, Morrison 10 years and Bellar seven years. They won’t be eligible for parole until they serve their full sentences.
Wilson handed down the sentences after playing a video statement from Whitmer, who urged the jurist to impose a penalty that met the “gravity” of the crime.
“A conspiracy to kidnap and kill a sitting governor of the state of Michigan is a threat to democracy itself,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in the recording.
The trio were members of the far-right Wolverine Watchmen and trained with Fox, who, along with Barry Croft Jr., launched the plot to snatch Whitmer from her vacation home in an effort to spark a civil war known as the “boogaloo.”
The plot was broken up before the governor could be harmed, in part because of informants the FBI worked with inside the operation. A total of 14 people were arrested for roles in the plot.
Prosecutors accused the three men of running a “terrorist training camp” in Michigan and holding three sessions with Fox ahead of his plot to launch civil war.
Defense attorneys intend to appeal the convictions — and claimed the men had distanced themselves from Fox before he planned to execute the kidnapping.
Bellar, his attorney argued, had moved to South Carolina about a month before the kidnapping plan was hatched.
In separate federal sentences, Fox and Croft will face life in prison later this month.
With Post wires
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