Michigan governor kidnap plot: second defendant to plead guilty

Plotters planned to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer from her holiday home

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks in Detroit last year. AP

A second person charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 has agreed to plead guilty and give evidence at a trial in March, a federal court filing on Monday showed.

Kaleb Franks, 27, will plead guilty to kidnapping conspiracy in a plea deal approved by prosecutors and his lawyers. The charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Mr Franks is scheduled to stand trial in March in US District Court for the Western District of Michigan alongside four others charged in the case and will admit to conspiring from June 2020 to October 2020 to kidnap Ms Whitmer.

In August last year, another man who pleaded guilty to charges linked to the plot received a sentence of a prison sentence of a little more than six years after he also agreed to give evidence against fellow extremists in the “Wolverine Watchmen” militia who were allegedly behind the conspiracy.

Ty Garbin was the first to be convicted of scheming to abduct Ms Whitmer from her holiday home. Since the FBI uncovered the conspiracy, more than a dozen men have been charged in state or federal court.

Prosecutors said the suspected participants in the plot sought Ms Whitmer's capture in retribution for wide-ranging public health orders imposed in response to the pandemic.

Violent threats have become more prevalent in American politics, including the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and phone threats made to election workers.

Ms Whitmer, who served as a co-chair of President Joe Biden's electoral campaign, has previously accused former Republican president Donald Trump of hyping up far-right groups as he denounced Covid-19 mitigation efforts being carried out in states run by Democrats.