Jurors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are hearing from a second man who pleaded guilty in a scheme to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
FILE - This booking photo provided by the Kent County Sheriff shows Kaleb Franks. Franks, 27, who pleaded guilty in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer testified Thursday, March 24, 2022, that he joined the conspiracy hoping he would be killed in a shootout with police.
Franks, 27, said an alleged leader, Adam Fox, believed Whitmer's COVID-19 restrictions were “tyrannical” and that the U.S. Constitution gave the men a right to strike back. He said no one was forced to stick with the plan and many people had dropped away by late summer 2020.“I was going to be an operator,” Franks replied when asked by a prosecutor to describe his role in a kidnapping. “I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun.”Fox, Barry Croft Jr.
Traveling at night, they scouted Whitmer's second home in Elk Rapids in September 2020 and inspected a bridge that could be blown up to frustrate any police response, according to trial testimony and conversations that were secretly recorded. Franks, a drug rehabilitation coach, said he joined a militia, the Wolverine Watchmen, to work on his gun skills. He eventually met Fox and Croft, who were not members of the militia, and found himself in the middle of a conspiracy.Franks said he stuck with the group because he hoped he would be killed in a shootout with police during the kidnapping but kept it from others.
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