GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Jury selection started Tuesday in the second trial of two men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over their disgust with restrictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors are putting Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. on trial again after a jury in April couldn’t reach a verdict. Two co-defendants were acquitted and two more pleaded guilty earlier.
Dozens of prospective jurors from western and northern Michigan reported to the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids.
“I don’t know if you feel like you won the lottery or just got called to the principal’s office. But either way, welcome,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said.
The plot to kidnap the Democratic governor followed training in Wisconsin and Michigan and two trips to scout her second home in northern Michigan, according to evidence in the first trial.