Plea deal with Michigan militia member reveals extremely violent plot to kidnap governor

Adam Dean Fox, Barry Gordon Croft Jr., Ty Gerard Garbin, Kaleb James Franks, Daniel Joseph Harris, and Brandon Michael-Ray Caserta are totally in trouble. These are some of the men who planned for months to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Their reasoning was a general loathing of government, an amorphous misogyny, and anger over the public health mandates Whitmer enacted in the hopes of curtailing the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic. The FBI announced their arrests in October after tips from less extreme militia members were given to the FBI, and an informant for the FBI infiltrated the group. The group had planned on kidnapping Whitmer and potentially holding televised executions of “tyrants” as well as other violent fantasy plans, depending on what they could accomplish.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge released a plea deal with one of the defendants, Ty Garbin, who appeared in a Grand Rapids, Michigan, federal court to enter his guilty plea. His sentencing deal was not agreed upon but, depending on the strength of his help, might be decided in July when he is set to return to court. The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker asked Garbin if he had any second thoughts, to which Garbin replied he did not. According to the FBI, Garbin’s property in Michigan was used to create a “shoot house” that the gang of violent dunderheads used to mimic Whitmer’s vacation home in order to practice “assaulting it with firearms.”