Wolverine Watchmen members plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: Here’s what we know

Six people have been charged in federal court with plotting to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at her vacation home. Separately, seven more people have been charged with trying to target police and the Michigan Capitol. Wochit

More than a dozen people with ties to the Wolverine Watchmen militia group are accused in connection to a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 

Here is what we know so far. 

This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available. 

What happened?

The federal government has charged six people in a plot to kidnap the governor, and the state has charged seven people with ties to the plot. Officials say all 13 are in custody.

The group is made up of members or associates of the militia group Wolverine Watchmen, Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday, as she announced the state charges.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joins top law enforcement officials from around the state, to discuss their thwarting of a plot, to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

 (Photo: Michigan Attorney General’s Office)

Whitmer, in a later press conference, said those charged have ties to two militia groups. 

The FBI learned from social media earlier this year that a militia group was “discussing the violent overthrow of certain government and law enforcement components,” according to a sworn affidavit in newly unsealed court records.

They talked of using 200 men to storm the Capitol Building in Lansing, kidnap hostages, including Whitmer, and try the governor for treason at a location in Wisconsin, according to the affidavit. One person also discussed shooting up the governor’s home.

More: Read the full FBI complaint

More: These 13 men were charged with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer

Another suggested they abduct Whitmer while going to or from her vacation home or the governor’s official summer residence on Mackinac Island, according to the affidavit.

They started preparations, officials say.

How far did they get, per officials?

The group held field exercises and trainings this year and conducted surveillance of the governor’s vacation home on at least two occasions in late August and September, according to the affidavit.

Members also discussed detonating a bomb to distract law enforcement, tested one explosive, and one individual inspected the underside of a highway bridge for possible placement, U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said Thursday. 

Andrew Birge, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan speaks during a press conference with top law enforcement officials from around the state, to discuss their thwarting of a plot, to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

 (Photo: Michigan Attorney General’s Office)

The group is also said to have purchased a high-voltage Taser and night goggles for use in the kidnapping. They used coded language and encrypted messages to throw off police, officials say.

They wanted the deed done before the Nov. 3 election, officials say.

One of the accused described the plans as, “Snatch and grab, man. Grab the f—-n governor. Just grab the b—-. Because at that point, we do that dude, it’s over,” court records showed.

Once kidnapped, the plan was to move Whitmer to a “secure location” in Wisconsin for “trial,” according to the affidavit.

Why did they plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer?

Civil war.

That’s what officials say the group was after in their attempt to not only kidnap Whitmer but attack the state Capitol and target police officers at their homes.

Nessel referred to the accused as “extremists” who are hoping to recruit new members “by seizing on a moment of civil unrest” to wreak havoc on the country.

They called on other members to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them and “made threats of violence to instigate a civil war leading to societal collapse,” she said. 

Who was charged in the plot?

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Charged at the federal level are:

They are charged in the U.S. District Court in the western district of Michigan with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

All are from Michigan except Croft, who is a resident of Delaware, according to a criminal complaint.

Charged at the state level are:

The men, some facing different charges than the others, face charges of providing material support for terrorist acts, gang membership, felony firearm and threat of terrorism.

The federal government has charged six people with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, per newly unsealed court records. Wochit

What was Gov. Whitmer’s reaction?

Whitmer expressed concern at the news at a 3 p.m. conference Thursday afternoon, and was quick to draw a connection to President Donald Trump’s choice to sidestep condemning white supremacists at the first presidential debate last week.

“Proud Boys – stand back and stand by,” Trump said. 

The Proud Boys are designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal advocacy organization. 

More: Donald Trump sidesteps call to condemn white supremacists — and the Proud Boys were ‘extremely excited’ about it

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers a press conference on October 8, 2020, in Lansing to comment on the newly released information about a plot to kidnap her.

 (Photo: Governor Whitmer’s Office)

The militia groups involved in the plot against Whitmer are hate groups, Whitmer said, and they took Trump’s words to heart. 

“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry – as a call to action,” she said. “When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight.”

Watch a recap of Whitmer’s statement here. 

Trump would later shoot back in a series of Tweets on Thursday night, saying Whitmer has done a terrible job in Michigan. 

“My Justice Department and Federal Law Enforcement announced…today that they foiled a dangerous plot against the Governor of Michigan,” he said. “Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White Supremacist—while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities.”

More: President Trump blasts Gov. Whitmer over comments on kidnapping plot

A senior campaign advisor for Trump and the president’s spokeswoman also blasted Whitmer’s comments earlier in the day.

“How you can go from a moment of unity to attacking President Trump I thought was just completely ridiculous. I mean if we want to talk about hatred, then Gov. Whitmer, go look in the mirror,” Jason Miller, a longtime Trump campaign advisor, said in a Fox News interview.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that Whitmer is “sowing division by making these outlandish allegations.”

Whitmer, in an interview with the Free Press, revealed she’s known about the plot for weeks. 

Detroit Free Press reporter Paul Egan interviews Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after she decried hatred and bigotry from her Capitol office Thursday in response to an alleged plot by domestic terrorists to kidnap her. Wochit

More: Gov. Whitmer denounces hate groups, says President Donald Trump is ‘complicit’

More: Michigan lawmakers react to Gov. Whitmer kidnap plot: ‘This is utterly terrifying’

Who are the Wolverine Watchmen?

The Wolverine Watchmen is a militia group that recruited members on Facebook since last November, according to state affidavits. 

The group “together with another group of individuals led by Adam Fox engaged in planning and training” for their deeds, several affidavits stated. Fox is charged in the federal case.

Adam Fox, arraigned in federal court in Kent County, Michigan, faces charges related to what the FBI says was a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

 (Photo: Kent County Jail)

Authorities say Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico are Wolverine Watchmen’s founding members. Morrison is considered the “Commander” and is known online as “Boogaloo Bunyan.”

At least two of the 13 have been spotted in a photo from April inside the Michigan Capitol building. In addition, members are said to have met there during a June rally.

Members also met for firearms training and tactical drills on private property in remote areas to prepare for “boogaloo,” a term referencing the coming of a civil war, according to the affidavit.

The “boogaloo” movement is a right-wing extremist group named for a 1980s breakdancing movie and characterized by members who carry weapons and wear Hawaiian shirts and tactical gear, USA Today reports. 

It’s been growing during unrest over coronavirus shutdowns and the deaths of Black Americans in police custody, and has both a neo-Nazi said and a libertarian side, USA Today reports.

More: The boogaloo movement is gaining momentum. Who are the boogaloo ‘bois’ and what do they want?

More: Men charged in plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer spotted in photo at Capitol gun rally

What’s the deal with militias in Michigan?

Militias are active in every state, but Michigan has a long history of the groups, said Amy Cooter, a senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University, who has studied them for more than a dozen years.

The modern militias date to the early 1990s, Cooter said,

“Michigan has always been a hotbed for militia activity,” Cooter said. “It’s one of the first states — one of the first two — to start having a formal militia organization in the early 90s and has had a strong presence ever since. The militias in Michigan have always been the kind to which other states’ militias look up to.”

More: Expert: Michigan ‘a hotbed for militia activity,’ with growing potential for violence

The Michigan governor’s residence in Lansing, pictured here in 2014.

 (Photo: Lansing State Journal file photo) What is security like at Gov. Whitmer’s home?

Whitmer has had a security upgrade underway at home in a neighborhood west of the Lansing Country Club for some time now, with planning that began in 2019, the Lansing State Journal reports.

The $1.1 million security upgrade is slated to include a high-security fence and intruder detection system around the property, LSJ reports.

More: Security upgrades underway at governor’s Lansing residence before kidnapping threat

How did the FBI investigate?

The FBI used confidential informants to infiltrate the group’s meetings, tactical trainings, phone calls and encrypted group chats, court documents state.

The FBI learned through social media early in 2020 that a militia group was discussing the violent overthrow of “certain government and law enforcement components,” according to a sworn affidavit.

Informants attended gatherings among group members in Dublin, Ohio, at a Second Amendment rally at Michigan’s Capitol and at private properties in Michigan.

Among the gatherings the FBI monitored was a June 20 meeting at Adam Fox’s business in Grand Rapids. Fox collected the attendees’ cell phones to prevent monitoring, but an informant was wearing a hidden recording device that captured audio.

An informant provided audio recordings of group members conducting surveillance at Whitmer’s personal vacation home in August and later in September. In September, audio recordings captured the group detonating an improvised explosive device made from a firework wrapped in shrapnel at Ty Garbin’s property in Luther, Mich., according to the criminal complaint.

The FBI paid one of the informants more than $14,000 and paid $8,600 to another, according to the affidavit.

Has this happened before?

Earlier this year, a Detroit man — Robert Tesh, 33 — was charged with false report or threat of terrorism for threatening to kill Whitmer and Nessel. 

Officials say he made the threats on a social media messenger while communicating with an acquaintance. 

He was found competent to stand trial and is scheduled for a January preliminary examination, online court records show.

The kidnapping case, however, marks the second major militia case brought by federal officials in the state in the last decade.

Seven Hutaree militia members were arrested in 2009 and charged with plotting a revolt against the government that included killing police officers with guns and bombs.

The case concluded in 2012 when U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts determined the government failed to prove its case and there was not proof of a real plot to overthrow the government or kill police. Two defendants pleaded guilty to lesser weapons charges, however. 

More to come.

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