{"id":1425900,"date":"2022-04-08T14:29:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T18:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425900"},"modified":"2022-04-08T14:29:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T18:29:50","slug":"breaking-jury-reaches-partial-verdict-in-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-jury-reaches-partial-verdict-in-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Jury Reaches Partial Verdict In Gretchen Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbreaking-jury-reaches-partial-verdict-in-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-trial%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1425900&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/Gretchen-Whitmer-1.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The jury in the trial over an alleged plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) told the court after over four days of deliberating that they are split over some of the charges.<\/p>\n<p>Jurors told Judge Robert Jonker that they had arrived at a partial verdict, agreeing on some counts but remaining split on others. Deliberations began on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p><em>This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, after hearing from the jury, Jonker twice instructed them to return to deliberations and try to reach an unanimous decision on the deadlocked charges. The jury was apparently not able to resolve all of its disagreements.<\/p>\n<p>The trial, which began in early March, followed the arrest of Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft, Adam Fox, and Daniel Harris. The FBI had investigated them and a number of other militiamen, most in the Michigan-based group the Wolverine Watchmen, for about seven months for violent threats made against law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Caserta, Croft, Fox, and Harris pleaded not guilty, and during the trial, their defense attorneys accused two other men, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, both of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy, of lying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we tried to make it very clear that the snitches Garbin and Franks were inconsistent,\u201d Caserta\u2019s defense attorney Mike Hills <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/jury-deliberations-to-begin-in-whitmer-kidnapping-trial\">told<\/a> reporters last week. \u201cThey were actually lying \u2014 it was more than inconsistent. They were lying, and they were doing so for time, which is the most precious thing you can have. I\u2019m hoping it impacted the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The defendants\u2019 attorneys argued that their clients were, first, not guilty of the crime alleged and, second, to the extent that a conspiracy did exist, the FBI entrapped their clients and illegally pushed forward a plot that otherwise would never have amounted to anything more than strong language.<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors argued the opposite. The government presented audio clips cut from hundreds of hours-worth of recordings taken by FBI agents and informants throughout the investigation. Prosecutors brought up messages and social media posts to argue that the defendants were part of a violent group that, if given a chance, would have carried out a plot to kidnap and potentially execute the governor.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecutors said the defendants took concrete steps to carry out that plan, holding meetings and trainings across several states, and taking two trips to scope out the governor\u2019s vacation home in Elk Rapids, Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>Closing arguments in the case wrapped up last week on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn America, there\u2019s a lot of things you can do. You can criticize the government publicly, absolutely,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/2022\/04\/02\/alleged-whitmer-kidnap-plot-now-hands-jury\/7251563001\/\">told<\/a>\u00a0jurors. \u201cIf you don\u2019t like the government\u2019s policies, you can protest them. If you don\u2019t like elected leaders, you can vote them out at the ballot box. What you can\u2019t do is kidnap them, kill them, or blow them up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBarry Croft drove across the country four times to plan this. Adam Fox came up [to Whitmer\u2019s cottage] twice. It wasn\u2019t just protected speech,\u201d Kessler told the jury, adding the group took efforts to conceal their plan. \u201cThey weren\u2019t going to protests. They were specifically keeping a low profile so that nobody would know what they were up to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">Become a member now and join our mission.<\/a><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The jury in the trial over an alleged plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) told the court after over four days of deliberating that they are split over some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1425900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1425900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}