Prosecutors have rested their case against two men on trial for a second time in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
The jury heard seven days of testimony before prosecutors finished Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. are on trial on conspiracy charges. A jury in April couldn鈥檛 reach a unanimous verdict but acquitted two other men.
One of the last government witnesses was an FBI agent who was working undercover. Tim Bates, known as 鈥淩ed,鈥� said he got inside the group when talk turned to obtaining an explosive to destroy a bridge near Whitmer's vacation home in Elk Rapids, Michigan.
The defense argues that Fox and Croft were entrapped by agents and informants who fed their wild anti-government views.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP鈥檚 earlier story follows below.
An FBI agent who was working undercover told jurors Thursday about a stop at a bridge near Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's vacation home during a night ride by anti-government extremists to continue planning a kidnapping.
Tim Bates, simply known as 鈥淩ed鈥� to the group, said he encouraged Adam Fox to take a picture of the bridge after they got out of a pickup truck. The government alleges that destroying it was part of a scheme to get Whitmer.
鈥淭hey wanted to slow down law enforcement response,鈥� Bates testified.
No kidnapping took place in Elk Rapids. In October 2020, about a month later, Fox, Barry Croft Jr. and four others were arrested and accused of being domestic terrorists.
Fox and Croft are on trial for a . A jury in April but acquitted two other men.
Bates said he pitched himself to the group as someone who could get explosives. By fall 2020, he said there was talk about buying bomb components, and the FBI wanted to stay on top of it. Another agent as well as informants already had infiltrated the group.
Bates said Fox also talked about destroying a second bridge in the Elk Rapids area, though the government didn鈥檛 offer any evidence of it on secretly recorded conversations. The agent also admitted during cross-examination that he hadn't disclosed it during the first trial last spring.
鈥淵ou were wearing a recorder the entire trip, correct? And the recorder functioned, true?鈥� Fox attorney Christopher Gibbons said.
鈥淚 can't speak to how all of them functioned,鈥� Bates replied, 鈥渂ut I believe a recorder was on the entire time.鈥�
The defense argues that Fox and Croft were entrapped by government operatives who fed their wild views. Prosecutors say the group wanted to and was especially furious over COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Whitmer during the early stages of the pandemic.
Defense lawyers have tried to make their case by sharply cross-examining the government's witnesses. Like Gibbons, Croft attorney Joshua Blanchard picked at the lack of a recording about Fox talking about destroying a second bridge.
鈥淲e should be able to hear that, right?鈥� Blanchard said.
Croft, 46, is from Bear, Delaware. Fox, 39, was living in the basement of a vacuum shop in the Grand Rapids area.
Whitmer, a Democrat, has blamed then-President Donald Trump for over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn hate groups and right-wing extremists like those charged in the plot.
Trump recently called the kidnapping plan a 鈥渇ake deal.鈥�
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Find the AP鈥檚 full coverage of the kidnapping plot trial:
Ed White, The Associated Press
