The new pardon attorney at the U.S. Justice Department said he plans to take a serious look at the cases of two men serving long prison sentences for being part of a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
“We can’t forget about these guys when it comes to pardons,” Ed Martin Jr. said this week on “The Breanna Morello Show.”
“In my opinion, these are victims just like January 6,” Martin said, referring to the 1,500 people pardoned by former President Donald Trump for crimes tied to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The arrests of Barry Croft Jr., Adam Fox, and other anti-government extremists caused a stir near the end of the 2020 presidential race. Officials said the group wanted to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat, from her vacation home and start a civil war.
Croft, 49, and Fox, 42, were seen as the main people behind the plan. They were found guilty of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2022. Croft, a truck driver from Delaware, was also found guilty of a weapons charge.
Ed Martin speaks in an eventCroft got nearly 20 years in prison, and Fox, who is from Grand Rapids, was given a 16-year sentence. Both men are being held in a prison in Colorado that is the most secure in the federal system.
Whitmer was never hurt. Martin called it a “fed-napping” plot instead of a kidnapping plot, likely because several undercover FBI agents and informants had joined the group and helped build the case.
He said it seemed like the government was being used unfairly.
“I fully believe we’re going to take a serious look at this. The president will want to know what really happened,” Martin said, promising to work on it quickly.
An email asking for a comment from Whitmer’s office wasn’t answered right away on Friday.
In 2020, Whitmer blamed Trump for creating mistrust and stirring up anger over COVID-19 rules and for not speaking out against right-wing extremists. After he left office, Trump questioned the kidnapping plot, calling it a “fake deal.”
