Washington (AFP) - The co-leader of a far-right militia plot to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison Wednesday, the toughest sentence yet in the case.
Barry Croft, 47, was convicted in August as one of the architects of the 2020 plan to kidnap the Democratic governor in retribution for her Covid-19 quarantine policies -- and more broadly in hope of fomenting a civil war.
Croft was the final defendant to learn his fate in the case, after his fellow militia leader, 39-year-old Adam Fox, was sentenced a day earlier to 16 years in prison.
Both were found guilty of kidnapping conspiracy, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and other charges, according to a statement from the US Justice Department.
"Croft and others intended to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids, Michigan, and use the destructive devices to facilitate their plot by harming and hindering the governor's security detail and any responding law enforcement officers," the statement said.
"They specifically explored placing a bomb under an interstate overpass near a pedestrian boardwalk," it said.
The plot never got very far as federal law enforcement followed it with the help of multiple informants in the group, whose members dubbed themselves the Wolverine Watchmen.
But it underscored the rising threat that armed right-wing militia groups posed around the country, especially during the hotly contested election of 2020.
Several similar militia groups took part in the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol in support of then president Donald Trump's attempt to retain power after losing the election two months earlier.
The sentence came two weeks after a Michigan state court handed sentences ranging from seven to 12 years to three others who were charged with domestic terrorism over their support for the plot.
