US: Jury convicts two over Michigan governor kidnap plot

Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer

The two men were also found guilty of conspiring to use an explosive device. They face the possibility of life in prison.

A US jury convicted on Tuesday convicted two men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

The US government says the pair were members of the Three Percenters militia group, which is associated with the far-right “boogaloo” movement.

They were found guilty of conspiring to use an explosive device.

The men face the possibility of life in prison.

The verdict came four months after a federal judge in the Michigan city of Grand Rapids declared a mistrial. Two other defendants were found not guilty in the first trial.

What was the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer?

Prosecutors said the accused hatched the plot in 2020 reaction to Michigan’s anti-COVID-19 restrictions.

According to the indictment, the pair considered Whitmer a “tyrant” and planned to kidnap her and put her on trial.”

Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler said during closing arguments that the accused planned to “set off a second American Civil war” and a “second American Revolution.”

The two men allegedly conducted surveillance outside the governor’s vacation home and took pictures of a nearby bridge they planned to bring down with an explosive device.

The pair’s defense lawyers accused the FBI of entrapment by infiltrating their group with informants and devising the plot to kidnap Whitmer.