DETROIT – Federal prosecutors say they have a "large volume of evidence" — so much that they requested an extra 40 days before bringing an indictment — but five of the six men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pleaded not guilty Thursday.
The evidence ranges from interviews with FBI agents, secret recordings, text messages and chat room exchanges, audio and video sent through social media and material seized via search warrants, ranging from drug paraphernalia to firearms to a taser, according to records filed Thursday.
Nevertheless, Adam Fox, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta pleaded not guilty Thursday during arraignments conducted via video to conspiring to kidnap the governor. The five men, along with Barry Croft Jr., were indicted Wednesday on the charge, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison. It was not clear why Croft was not arraigned Thursday.
The men are part of a wide-ranging plot that allegedly involved more than a dozen men accused in federal and state courts of conspiring to kidnap the governor and planning to attack police and blow up the state Capitol in response to what they considered tyrannical restrictions on their civil rights. Whitmer has issued multiple executive orders this year restricting crowd sizes and which businesses can open, as part of a broad effort to restrict the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Parker Douglas, who represents Harris, told the Detroit Free Press: "My client Daniel Harris pleaded not guilty this morning because he is, in fact, not guilty of the charge the government has brought against him. As you can see from the indictment, the government is extremely vague regarding the alleged conspiracy's nature, the alleged conspiracy's object and any steps my client allegedly took to agree with the conspiracy. This is because there was no actual conspiracy to kidnap Governor Whitmer. Mr. Harris is being held without bail pending trial, and remains innocent of the charge brought against him."
Messages left with attorneys for the other defendants were not returned.
Court filings say the five men who pleaded guilty all have prior criminal histories, but do not provide details.
(Free Press staff writer Tresa Baldas contributed to this report.)
