Whitmer Kidnap Plot Leader Wants Supreme Court To Review Case

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/30/2025) One of the men convicted in the plot to kidnap and kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked the land’s highest court to hear his appeal, arguing that Whitmer was “in on the hoax” and he did not “actually commit acts of violence.”

The opening brief for Barry Croft Jr. describes him as “one of several citizens targeted in 2020 by the FBI and a tightly controlled cohort of paid confidential agents/informants, all working together on a coordinated FBI team to ensnare these citizens in an FBI-promoted ‘conspiracy’ to ‘kidnap’ Michigan’s governor, who was in on the hoax and updated regularly, all times for splashy arrests before the Nov. 3, 2020, election.”

Croft, of Bear, Delaware, was sentenced in 2022 to nearly 20 years in prison for conspiracy to kidnap and use of a weapon of mass destruction.

The prosecution argued Croft was the driving force behind the plot along with Adam Fox, who was also convicted and is serving a long prison term.

Croft’s trial attorney argued his client wasn’t the leader and that the government and its confidential informant spearheaded the discussions to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home.

“Much of the case was founded on Croft having a big mouth, being a showoff who loudly spouted anti-government sentiments, and talking a lot of nonsense to likeminded people who were likewise disgusted by the COVID lockdowns, the glaring hypocrisy of elected officials about COVID restrictions, and the violent ‘mostly peaceful’ George Floyd-inspired riots which then dominated the news and so many people’s emotions,” according to the filing from Croft’s attorney Timothy Sweeney, of Cleveland, Ohio.

Croft and Fox were two of four men tried in April 2022 for the alleged plot. The jury deadlocked on Croft and Fox’s guilt, but acquitted the two co-defendants.

A second trial in August that year resulted in convictions against both Fox and Croft.

In April, a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed Croft’s conviction and sentence.

The following month, President Donald Trump said he would “look at” pardoning Croft and Fox, and one day later, Whitmer said such a move would be a “broken promise” Trump made.