Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she recently spoke with President Donald Trump about the pardons he floated for the men convicted of plotting to kidnap her.
She didn’t elaborate on the details on their conversation. “I will just confirm that I have connected with the president directly on this subject and made my thoughts known, and so beyond that I’m not going to share more about our conversation but hopefully he’ll take some of those things into consideration when he makes a decision,” she told reporters June 3 following a ribbon cutting ceremony in Detroit where she joined community leaders to celebrate state support for revitalizing the city’s Livernois and West McNichols Corridor.
Whitmer said she spoke with Trump in the past 24 hours.
Speaking to reporters May 28 in the Oval Office, Trump said he would consider whether to pardon the convicted Whitmer kidnap plotters. The next day, Whitmer said Trump had previously told her he wouldn’t do so in an interview with Michigan Public Radio Network reporter Rick Pluta at the Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island. She later took the opportunity to condemn political violence from the conference stage and said she hopes he doesn’t follow through on the pardons.
In August 2022, a federal jury in Grand Rapids convicted Adam Fox, originally of Potterville, and Barry Croft Jr., of Delaware, after prosecutors alleged they had conspired to kidnap and possibly kill Whitmer two years earlier over their frustration with her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison on conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess weapons of mass destruction charges, while Croft was sentenced to 19 years on the same two charges as Fox, plus a third charge of knowingly possessing an unregistered destructive device. Both are currently serving their sentences in a maximum security federal prison in Colorado.
During their trial, their defense attorneys had claimed the pair were simply tough talkers and never had any actual plans to kidnap Whitmer. Fox and Croft, their attorneys unsuccessfully argued, were entrapped by rogue informants and undercover FBI agents.
Both Fox and Croft sought new trials, arguing they didn’t get a fair trial before they were convicted because of how the judge overseeing the case set rules on how long their defense attorneys could cross-examine government witnesses. But in April, a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed their sentences.
In total, 14 men were charged for their connections to the plot. In federal court, prosecutors charged Fox, Croft and four others: Kaleb Franks and Ty Garbin took deals to plead guilty and have served reduced prison sentences, while Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were acquitted of all charges. At the trial where Harris and Caserta were acquitted, the jury was deadlocked on charges for Fox and Croft, leading to a second trial where the latter two were ultimately convicted.
State prosecutors had mixed results in local courts, landing convictions for some of those accused of providing support to the kidnapping plot, while others were acquitted by juries in local courts. While Trump does have the presidential power to pardon any individual convicted of a crime in the federal court system, that power does not extend to individuals convicted in state courts.
In her latest comments, Whitmer told reporters the impact on the victim in a case that has resulted in a conviction is important. “As a former prosecutor, as the target of this particular plot, I wanted to make sure that the president who’s going to make a decision has all the information necessary toward making the right decision,” she said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked at the news briefing following Whitmer’s latest statement about any conversation between the governor and Trump about the pardons. “I won’t reveal the president’s private discussion unless he gives me liberty to do so,” Leavitt said. She reiterated what she characterized as Trump’s comments on the subject previously, saying, “He said it was something he would look at. Nothing more, nothing less.”
(This story was updated to add new information and a photo gallery.)
Free Press staff writer Todd Spangler contributed to this report.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer says she spoke to Trump after he floated pardons for her kidnap plotters
Reporting by Clara Hendrickson and Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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