Three members of a fringe paramilitary group were convicted on Wednesday of aiding a plot to kidnap the Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over COVID-19 restrictions they viewed as oppressive.
The plotters – Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico – were convicted of trying to help Adam Fox carry out the kidnapping after a state court trial.
The prosecution in Jackson County, a Republican stronghold west of Detroit, grew out of a sprawling state and federal investigation into the plot.
Fox and another defendant, Barry Croft, were convicted on federal charges in August – after another jury acquitted two other defendants and deadlocked on charges against the pair.
In the state prosecution of Bellar, Morrison and Musico, Sunita Doddamani, an assistant attorney general in Michigan, told jurors the trio were an “organized” gang who were planning for action.
The three far-right plotters were convicted of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of the fringe militia group, the Wolverine Watchmen.
In a statement after the verdict, Whitmer said the convictions “are further proof that violence and threats have no place in our politics.”
“Those who seek to sow discord by pursuing violent plots will be held accountable under the law,” she added.
With Post Wires
