Washington (AFP) - Opening arguments began on Wednesday in the federal trial of four right-wing militants accused of plotting to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan and spark a "civil war" in the United States.
The four are among 14 men charged with targeting Governor Gretchen Whitmer because of the tough Covid-19 pandemic restrictions she imposed on the northern US state.
Two defendants pleaded guilty already and eight others will be tried in state court.
The arrests came amid growing concerns over armed right-wing extremist groups, which the FBI has said constitute the greatest domestic terror threat to the country.
They took place in October 2020 amid heightened tensions ahead of the November 2020 presidential election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, which spilled over into violence on January 6, 2021 with the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
Members of right-wing extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol.
Prosecutors said the defendants in the Michigan case -- Adam Fox, Daniel Harris, Brandon Caserta and Barry Croft -- were members of the Boogaloo movement, a loosely-shaped ideology formed around gun culture and the belief of a looming civil war.
According to the indictment, they considered the 50-year-old Whitmer a "tyrant" and planned to kidnap her and put her on "trial."
They allegedly conducted surveillance outside Whitmer's vacation home and took pictures of a nearby bridge they planned to blow up as a diversion while they seized the governor.
"They believe that a second civil war is coming," US Attorney Jonathan Roth said."They're looking forward to the civil war.They're getting ready for it."
Roth said the defendants "agreed, planned, trained, were ready to break into a woman's home as she slept with her family in the middle of the night.
"With violence and at gunpoint they would tie her up to take her from that home, and to accomplish that they would shoot, blow up and kill anybody who got in their way," he said.
'Misfit'
The four have pleaded not guilty and have accused federal agents of entrapment by infiltrating their group with informants and hatching the kidnapping plot.
Christopher Gibbons, a lawyer for Fox, told the jury that his client was a "misfit" who was "basically homeless."
"There was a lot of talk but there was no conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan," Gibbons said."There was no plan."
One of the two men who pleaded guilty was sentenced to six years in prison and is expected to testify at the trial of the four others, which is taking place in Grand Rapids.
The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks.
