Lawyers: Men charged in Whitmer plot were big talkers
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D)[Julia Pickett / CC BY-SA 4.0]
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Lawyers for men charged with planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are portraying their clients as big talkers, wannabes who never meant what they said and in one case, a pot-smoking “misfit” influenced by an FBI informant he met at a protest.
Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons on Wednesday refuted a prosecutor’s claim that Adam Fox was a mastermind of the alleged plot against the Democratic governor. He said during opening statements in a federal courtroom in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that “Fox did not commit a crime in this case."
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Four men face trial: Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr. and Daniel Harris. Prosecutors say the men devised the plan to snatch Whitmer in 2020 because they were angry about pandemic restrictions and that they went well beyond talking.