A federal judge ordered two defendants charged in an alleged Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) kidnapping scheme to face a retrial, setting a tentative start date for Aug. 9.
The two men charged in the purported plot were back in the courtroom Thursday, arguing the charges against them be dismissed, but the judge denied the request and demanded a new trial instead. Nearly three months ago, a jury deadlocked on the charges against them and a mistrial was declared.
WHITMER KIDNAPPING TRIAL COLLAPSES: TWO NOT GUILTY, TWO WALK FREE AFTER MISTRIAL
“A rational jury, in my view, could still rule against Mr. Fox, rule against Mr. Croft,” Judge Robert Jonker of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan declared, per the Detroit News. “We will need to have another jury weigh the evidence.”
Lawyers for Adam Fox, 38, and Barry Croft, 46, who had been charged in the alleged plot, argued that prosecutors lacked evidence to convict the pair of the kidnapping conspiracy and other charges against them. In April, a jury cleared two of their co-defendants — Daniel Harris, 24, and Brandon Caserta, 34 — of kidnapping charges against them but was unable to reach a unanimous decision on Fox and Croft, resulting in a mistrial.
“Because of the preclusive effect of the acquittals of Mr. Harris and Mr. Caserta as well as the insufficient evidence presented by the government at trial, Mr. Croft requests the Court enter a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Rule 29(c) on each count of the superseding indictment,” defense attorneys argued in court documents, Fox11 reported.
Jonker was unconvinced and sided with prosecutors, who argued a new trial was warranted.
The alleged plot entailed a plan to kidnap Whitmer because of frustration over her restrictive COVID-19 policies. Some of the men accused held training sessions and surveilled her vacation home, according to court documents. Ultimately, the alleged co-conspirators were arrested in October 2020 during a sting operation.
During the trial, lawyers for Fox and Croft argued that they were victims of federal entrapment and that undercover agents had goaded them into pursuing the alleged scheme.
“The evidence presented at trial, even when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, did not establish that there was an agreement between Adam Fox and any of the other defendants to kidnap the governor or to purchase and use a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in furtherance of that kidnapping,” a lawyer for Fox argued, according to the Detroit News.
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The new trial is slated to take place a week after Michigan’s Aug. 2 primary date. Whitmer is currently vying for a second term as governor and is expected to face stiff competition from the Republican side in the fall. She has no major challengers in her primary bid.
