Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has condemned a move by Donald Trump to consider pardoning crazed extremists who plotted to kidnap her and “hog tie” her.
The Democrat spoke out after Trump said Wednesday that the trial “looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job,” and he would look into using his pardon power.
The convicts include two who are considered so dangerous by the Bureau of Prisons that they are being held in the federal supermax in Colorado along with convicts including the Mexican drug lord El Chapo and the al Qaeda shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., who were angry at Whitmer’s Covid-19 policies in 2020, were convicted in August 2022. Croft, who also faced weapons charges, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Fox was given a 16-year sentence.
They were part of an elaborate plot to separate Whitmer from her security detail—by force if necessary—to take her captive. Fox was caught on tape telling his co-conspirators, “Grab the f—in’ governor. Just grab the b—h. I want to have the governor hog-tied, laid out on a table, while we all pose around like we just made the world’s biggest goddamn drug bust, bro.”
Croft was also recorded saying he had been given permission to kill by God. They were part of a radicalized gang which plotted the kidnapping; nine were either convicted after trial or pleaded guilty before trial to charges including plotting to kidnap and plotting to use weapons of mass destruction. Five more were acquitted, one of whom was taped by the FBI saying of Whitmer, “cap her.”
“I’m very disappointed that they are even considering it, frankly,” Whitmer told NBC affiliate News 8 of Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo on Thursday.
“When the president was shot at in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first people on either side of the aisle to condemn it,” she said. “We have to condemn political violence, no matter who it comes from, no matter who it is aimed at. It does a disservice to everyone if we do anything short of that.”
Whitmer added: “I will be making my thoughts known to the White House and I hope they take it into consideration.”
The vile plot to kidnap Whitmer has become an obsession on the fringes of the right with claims that FBI agents provocateur were actually behind it and that some of the plotters were railroaded into pleading guilty.
Croft and Fox’s bid to be freed has already failed when they appealed their conviction earlier this year and were turned down by a federal appeals court.
“Between Defendants’ extremist group affiliations, threatening social media posts, and numerous self-incriminating private communications, it is evident that Defendants were ready and willing to commit these crimes long before being introduced to any government informants,” the court wrote then.
Trump’s relationship with Whitmer has also proved variable. In 2020, he fueled local rage about lockdowns to reduce the spread of Covid by calling Whitmer “that woman from Michigan,” and Tweeting, “Liberate Michigan.”
But Whitmer has now appeared twice in public with Trump, the first time to her embarrassment when she was photographed in April the Oval Office at what she had thought would be a private meeting. The second was when she appeared on stage with him later in April in Warren, MI, where he praised her for helping save jobs at Selfridge Air National Guard base there.
A few weeks later, Trump made the trip out there, and praised Whitmer during his speech.
“So I want to thank Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for bringing [Selfridge] to our attention,” he said.
“You know, I’m not supposed to do that. She’s a Democrat. They say, ‘Don’t do that, don’t have her here.’ I said, ‘No, she’s going to be here.’ She’s done a very good job, frankly.”
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