Prosecutors: Kidnapping conspirators wanted a civil war

Prosecutors are alleging three men accused of plotting the kidnapping of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer were preparing for a fierce civil war. The group considered themselves "the new founding fathers."

By

National News

August 23, 2023 - 3:29 PM

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer waits to speak at a canvass kickoff on Michigan Primary Election Day on Aug. 2, 2022, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images/TNS)

BELLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — Three men accused of aiding a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were anarchists who considered themselves “the new founding fathers” and were preparing for bloodshed, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.

“They didn’t like the U.S. government. They didn’t like the state government. They all desired to start a civil war, if you can believe it,” William Rollstin of the state attorney general’s office said in his opening trial statement.

“For the average person, it’s almost impossible to fathom how brazen, how bold, how dangerous these individuals were,” he said.

Eric Molitor and twin brothers William Null and Michael Null are charged in Antrim County Circuit Court with providing material support for terrorist acts — punishable by up to 20 years in prison — and illegally possessing firearms. They have pleaded not guilty.

Defense attorneys were scheduled to make opening statements later Wednesday.

The defendants were among 14 men arrested weeks before the November 2020 election. Nine have been convicted in state or federal court, including four who pleaded guilty, while two were acquitted.

Investigators described them as members of paramilitary groups angered by Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies, which shut down schools and restricted the economy.

Eleven women and seven men were selected as jurors in the Republican-leaning county, a rural area popular with tourists. Whitmer has a vacation home in the Lake Michigan village of Elk Rapids.

Rollstin told jurors the three defendants supported a plan hatched by ringleaders Adam Fox and Barry Croft to abduct the two-term Democratic governor there and blow up a bridge to prevent law enforcement officers from aiding her.

Informants and undercover FBI agents were inside the group for months, leading to arrests. Whitmer was not physically harmed.

The Null brothers, both 41, were leaders of a group called the Michigan Liberty Militia and supported the so-called “boogaloo” movement that wanted to overthrow the government, Rollstin said. Molitor, 39, was recruited by Fox to join his “civilian army,” the prosecutor said.

Rollstin used audio and video clips, social media posts and snippets of encrypted online conversations to outline the scheme and the three defendants’ alleged roles.

The Null brothers, he said, took part in surveillance of Whitmer’s home and paramilitary training exercises, one at a makeshift “kill house” intended to prepare for an assault on the governor’s dwelling.

Rollstin said Molitor also joined one of the observation missions, shot video of the house and provided an electronic device.

All three defendants “knew what the plan was about,” the prosecutor said. “There was no doubt this was going to be an act of terrorism.”

Related