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Gretchen Whitmer (September in Detroit): "Call to Action"
Photo: JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP
It sounds monstrous, a little like news from a distant failing state.
It's not surprising, though: Something like this had been emerging in Michigan for months.
Six men have been charged in the Great Lakes state for plotting to kidnap Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Seven others are charged with trying to instigate a civil war.
The allegations in the two trials - the first in federal court, the second in Michigan State - are terrorism, conspiracy and gun crimes.
The defendants in the first trial face life imprisonment, in the second it is up to 20 years.
The plan: kidnap the governor before the US election and charge her with "treason"
In a court document made public on Thursday, an FBI agent involved in the case described the men's plans in all their disturbing details.
They had been discussing the kidnapping of Whitmer since at least the summer.
Her goal is to bring the governor under her control before the presidential election and charge her with "treason" in a vigilante trial.
It was probably not just words.
According to the FBI, the men scouted Whitmers vacation home twice.
Andrew Birge, the state attorney in western Michigan, said one of the defendants acquired a stun gun to be used in the kidnapping.
Accordingly, the men now also considered the use of explosives.
This, according to a scenario discussed by the defendants, could have exploded under a bridge to lure the police away from the governor's holiday home.
"Grab the fucking governor"
Defendant
According to the FBI, there were also conspiratorial meetings.
In one such event in Ohio in June, one of those arrested described his efforts: He would have to recruit 200 men to storm the state capitol and take hostages, including the governor.
In July, he described again what he had in mind: "Grab the fucking governor. Just grab the bitch."
What he didn't know at the time: the person he was talking to was an FBI informant.
In August and September, the federal police increased their surveillance of the group and deployed undercover agents.
Access then took place on Wednesday.
The six men - five Michigan residents and one Delaware - were arrested.
The second group of defendants does not have to answer in a federal court as things stand: The seven men are being accused of being in connection with Michigan's anti-terrorism laws.
According to Dana Nessel, the state attorney general, the seven men are charged with identifying police officers' homes and making threats of violence aimed at "starting a civil war."
According to the FBI, two of the accused are co-founders of the Wolverine Watchmen, a radical militia that rejects the state.
Gretchen Whitmer: the enemy of Trump supporters
Ultra-right militias are nothing new in Michigan, as in a number of other states.
However, for the last few months, their activities have been taking place against a significantly changed political backdrop.
Nobody has felt this more intensely than Whitmer.
The Democrat, who in the meantime was traded as Joe Biden's runner-up, has become an enemy of all those who reject corona restrictions in the wake of the pandemic.
(Read more about this here.) Donald Trump played a not insignificant role in this.
The president repeatedly attacked the governor.
"Free Michigan," was a Twitter message with which Trump fueled protests against Whitmer's actions.
The anger against the democrat grew.
The tone of the protests was shrill, at times one was reminded of the hostility against Angela Merkel during the Pegida protests in 2015.
Whitmer, a moderate Democrat, became the epitome of tyranny in the eyes of Trump supporters: comparisons with Nazi Germany, the worst insults, puppets on dummy gallows.
The development reached its temporary low at the end of April when the governor's opponents gained access to the parliament building, some of them armed with assault rifles and masked.
According to a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Nessel, at least three of the 13 accused this week were among them.
As far as can be seen, there is no evidence in the court records that Trump's rhetoric motivated the defendants.
Nevertheless, a few hours after the alleged plot became known, Whitmer made serious allegations against the president.
She referred to Trump's appearance in the first TV duel against Joe Biden and the message that the President gave to the Proud Boys, a violent right wing group, during the debate: “Stand back and stand by” (“Hold back and hold back you ready ").
Such groups, according to Whitmer, do not understand the President's words as reproach, but as "a slogan, a call to action".
Trump, for his part, attacked the governor on Twitter again.
Instead of thanking him for "his" federal agencies foiling the plot against them, Whitmer called him a white racist, the president lamented.
In general, the governor is doing a terrible job.
Trump continues to rely fully on confrontation, speaks completely flat and misleading of a "treacherous plot" Biden, Obamas and others and ponders why his political opponents are not arrested.
Added to this are his refusal to guarantee a peaceful transition after the election, as well as messages like the one to the "Proud Boys".
Against this background, the planned kidnapping of the governor of Michigan for the upcoming presidential election does not bode well.
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