(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A state appeals court on Monday set aside convictions for two men involved in an FBI-manufactured plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
As has been widely reported in both liberal and conservative media alike, the 2020 plot to kidnap Whitmer was highly driven by FBI informants and undercover agents. For instance, the FBI gave prepaid credit cards to the kidnap plot “ringleaders,” Adam Fox and Barry Croft (the two never used them). The FBI also created phony “III%er” militia groups around the country, and appointed Fox as the leader of the Michigan chapter.
Of the 12 men arrested, four took plea deals, five were eventually acquitted, and five were found guilty — two of them in federal court and three in state court.
But now, two of the state defendants, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar, have had their convictions overturned. Their co-defendant Joe Morrison also had his conviction tossed last month.
The convictions were overturned on technical grounds. The appeals court said kidnapping is not an underlying violent felony that can support a conviction under Michigan’s terrorism law.
Attorney General Dana Nessel called it “linguistic gymnastics” and said she would ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take up the cases.
Morrison, Musico and Bellar were not charged with having a direct role in the plot to kidnap Whitmer. Bellar had moved out of state weeks before the FBI made arrests in October 2020, and Morrison and Musico said they, too, were no longer in contact with key figures.
But they had been members of a group that earlier trained with the so-called leaders of the plot, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, who are serving 16- and 20-year sentences, respectively—both jailed at the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
While the convictions against Musico, Bellar, and Morrison have been overturned, they remain in jail as Michigan prosecutors signal they’ll retry the cases.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
