GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Prosecutors marked the start of the domestic terrorism trial of four men accused of scheming to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday by cataloging the alleged acts of angry men who built bombs, hatched violent plans and amassed an arsenal in hopes of sparking a nationwide wave of terror targeting politicians.
Opening statements started 17 months after FBI agents said they thwarted a domestic terrorism attack that involved kidnapping Whitmer and using bombs during the attack. The accused plotters are a mix of self-described patriots and militia members who prosecutors say were angered by restrictions imposed during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plot was hatched in April 2020, weeks into the pandemic and unfolded over the next six months across encrypted chat rooms, in militia meetings in Ohio, while building bombs in rural Wisconsin and at a secluded wooded training camp in northern Michigan where plotters practiced with an arsenal of weapons and launched surveillance of the governor's cottage, according to the government.
