Joshua Blanchard

Punishment is longest federal sentence for arrested Michigan plotters

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Barry Croft Jr., 47, the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate. Judge Robert J. Jonker called Croft “the idea guy” behind the plan to abduct Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The second of two ringleaders in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to 19.6 years in prison and five years of supervised release.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Barry Croft Jr., who was the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate. Judge Robert J. Jonker described him as "the idea guy" behind the plot.

Prosecutors are recommending a life prison sentence for a co-leader of the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s governor

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A federal judge Friday denied a motion for a third trial by two men who claimed the judge's biases and improper courtroom behavior led to their convictions in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A juror accused of harboring a bias against two men convicted Tuesday of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was allowed to stay on the case because the juror did not appear to be manipulative and denied having a predetermined desire to convict the men, according…

A jury in Michigan is returning Tuesday for its first full day of deliberations in the second trial of two men charged with conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Defense lawyers have rested their case in the trial of two men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan's governor

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Testimony began Wednesday in federal court in the retrial of two men accused of a violent plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with attorneys for both sides recasting and reframing their arguments four months after the first trial ended in a hung jury.