Federal prosecutors said the two men on trial in the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer connected with each other over their desire to kidnap government leaders and start a second American revolution.
Adam Fox, a Grand Rapids man living in a vacuum shop basement, accepted a call of action from Barry Croft, a Delaware trucker, to “hang a governor” in spring 2020. Both men are charged in the kidnapping conspiracy.
"They were all in," Assistant U.S. attorney Christopher O'Connor called in his opening statement in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids Wednesday morning.
O'Connor said Croft and Fox, the plot ringleaders, were upset by COVID-19 restrictions and plotted the kidnapping raid on the Governor's Elk Rapids cottage.
The trial began four months after jurors acquitted Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta April 8. They, along with Fox and Croft were two of the six suspects arrested by the FBI in October 2020.
Prosecutors alleged the men trained in shoot houses, built explosives and tried obtain more explosives from an undercover agent before the FBI stepped in and arrested the suspects in October 2020.
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Defense attorneys for the two men called the men "big talkers" with "no real plan." Gibbons said agents on the case pushed the suspects to meet, conduct field-training exercises and online chat groups.
Government distrust
The attorneys for Adam Fox and Barry Croft doubled down on their arguments in the first trial with a renewed focus on distrust of the government and the use of undercover FBI agents and confidential informants.
"It's federal fabrication" Fox's attorney Christopher Gibbons told jurors during his opening statement Wednesday.
Gibbons said secret FBI informants manipulated Fox, who he described as poor and homeless, "He was lonely and looking for a connection," Gibbons told jurors.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Matthew Schneider said the timing of the FBI's raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home could benefit defense's strategy during the trial.
"This couldn't be better timing for defense, who are trying to express mistrust in the government. This falls perfectly into their theory," Schneider said.
Republicans have weaponized the Department of Justice for their involvement in the Trump case. FBI director Christopher Wray said FBI agents seeing an increase in death threats after the raid on Mar-a-Lago.
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Several potential jurors who didn't get selected for the trial expressed distrust for the government, a noticeable uptick from comments made by the jury pool at the first trial.
"We rely on the facts and truth, the way you do that is to return a verdict of not guilty," Croft's attorney Joshua Blanchard remarked in his opening statement.
Outside of court, Blanchard stopped short of any connection to the Trump raid and the potential trial outcome.
"I don't know if its good timing or not, but it's interesting they were kicking down his door on the day we started the trial," Blanchard told reporters.
O'Connor said the men called for political violence long before the FBI started spying on the group's activities.
In the summer of 2020, Croft traveled to Ohio and Michigan to help recruit men to "kick off the revolution by taking out a governor, " prosecutors said. Both men communicated with other extremists and who were angry with Whitmer and other public officials, according to the FBI.
“It wasn’t just talk,” O’Connor told jurors in his opening statement.
FBI agents testify
FBI Special Agent Todd Reineck was called as the government's first witness Wednesday.
Reineck said the FBI opened an investigation into Fox, Croft and others who were discussing a violent overthrow of the government on social media in early 2020. Renick testified he provided confidential informants with recording devices.
Schneider said he believed the timing could help government could have an advantage in the second trial, which will be shorter and more focused.
"When you have four defendants, it can be confusing to the jury to remember who said what and when. This way they will be able to isolate the two most culpable defendants and that way they will be able to streamline the case," Schneider said.
Fox's defense attorney Christopher Gibbons and Croft's attorney Joshua Blanchard said they planned to call several witness at trial, including Caserta and Harris.
Harris's attorney Julia Kelly and Caserta's attorney Mike Hills both confirmed their clients received subpoenas.
Defense attorneys have denied the men were involved in any conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer. Fox and Croft's attorneys plan to argue as they did in the first trial that the men were all talk and the government entrapped them along the way.
Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks earlier pleaded guilty and will testify again against Fox and Croft in the second trial.
Garbin told jurors at the first trial that the goal was to cause national chaos with a kidnapping close to the election between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump.
Fox and Croft face charges of conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to build weapons of mass destruction. Both counts carry a maximum life sentence.
The public may listen to the trial by phone beginning at 8:30 a.m. by calling 877-402-9753 and using the access code 8731455, followed by the # symbol.