By Biodun Busari 

Adam Fox’s accomplice, Barry Croft Jr in the leading conspiracy to abduct Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer has been handed 235 months in prison. 

Vanguard reported yesterday that Fox was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for scheming to kidnap Michigan governor and also planning to use firearm against people or property.

Read also: Man sentenced to 16-yr-imprisonment over plot to kidnap Michigan governor

Fox was sentenced on Tuesday, while Croft Jr was condemned to nearly 20 years of imprisonment in a federal prison yesterday. 

CBS, Thursday, described the 47-year-old Croft Jr as Delaware trucker guilty of two counts conspiracy alongside Fox. 

They were accused of running a stunning plot to abduct Governor Whitmer from her vacation cottage just before the 2020 presidential election.

The conspirators were angry over difficult COVID-19 restrictions that Whitmer and officials in other states had put in place during the early months of the pandemic, as well as perceived threats to gun ownership.

Whitmer was not physically harmed. The FBI was secretly embedded in the group and made 14 arrests.

“Although he may not have had hierarchical control over all the other participants, he coordinated and pushed the implementation of the conspiracy from its inception to its final stages,” Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler said in a court filing.

“The only remaining step was for the governor to appear at her cottage so they could launch their plan, but fortunately she was still beyond their control,” the prosecutor said.

“The abduction of the governor was only meant to be the beginning of Croft’s reign of terror,” Kessler said. “He called for riots, ‘torching’ government officials in their sleep and setting off a ‘domino’ effect of violence across the country.”

An important piece of evidence showed Croft, Fox and others travelled to see Whitmer’s vacation home in northern Michigan, with undercover agents and informants inside the cabal.

At one point, Croft told allies: “I don’t like seeing anybody get killed either. But you don’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, you know what I mean?”