The Justice Department is considering a pardon for two individuals convicted of a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Ed Martin, the DOJ’s new pardon attorney, indicated that he planned to take a “hard look” at the cases during an appearance on “The Breanna Morellow Show.”
Martin stated that “we can’t leave these guys behind” and that “these are victims just like January 6.”
From The Detroit News:
The arrests of Barry Croft Jr., Adam Fox and other anti-government extremists rocked the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election. Authorities said the cabal wanted to grab Whitmer, a Democrat, at her vacation home and start a civil war.
Croft, 49, and Fox, 42, were portrayed as leaders of the scheme. They were convicted of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2022. Croft, a trucker from Delaware, was also found guilty of a weapons charge.
Croft was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, while Fox, a Grand Rapids man, got a 16-year term. They are being held at a prison in Colorado — the most secure in the federal system.
Whitmer was never physically harmed. Martin called it a “fed-napping” plot, not a kidnapping plot, apparently referring to the numerous undercover FBI agents and informants who had infiltrated the group and built the case.
He said it looked like the “weaponization of government.”
“I have complete confidence that we’re going to get a hard look at it. The president will want to know the facts about it," Martin said, pledging to “get on it as quick as I can, I promise.”
The U.S. Justice Department’s new pardon attorney, Ed Martin Jr., says he is conducting a review of the case involving Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, who were convicted in a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and are currently serving long federal prison sentences.… pic.twitter.com/UXQtWRJwTN
— Melissa Hallman (@dotconnectinga) May 26, 2025
The FBI originally arrested 13 men suspected of orchestrating the supposed kidnapping plot in October 2020. Some of the individuals were allegedly affiliated with the Wolverine Watchmen, a paramilitary militia group.
The alleged plot was motivated by anger over her onerous lockdown orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six of the suspects, including Fox and Croft, faced federal charges while the others were charged at the state level.
Two of the defendants were convicted in August 2022, following their first trial, which resulted in a hung jury.
Still, the cases raised suspicions about how the FBI conducted its investigation. The agency’s use of informants and undercover agents prompted some to allege that it entrapped the men and question whether the plot was authentic or concocted by the Bureau to target the men. “It becomes really dicey when there are nearly as many informants as there are defendants,” a former prosecutor noted.
The defense attorneys argued the FBI informants took leadership roles in the supposed plot, leading training sessions and other activities. An agent admitted that he instructed an informant to take on more leadership when training the men to avoid law enforcement.
The defense further argued that the Bureau specifically targeted people who espoused anti-government views and encouraged them to commit crimes. The judge prevented the defense from presenting evidence of communications between FBI handlers and informants to support this argument.
The FBI has come under scrutiny on several occasions for goading vulnerable individuals into participating in criminal or terrorist plots. It makes sense that Martin would take another look at this case, because the details surrounding it were fishy, to say the least.