In the controversy swirling around COVID-19-related lockdowns, an early hotspot was the state of Michigan, where Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer took sweeping steps in March to mitigate the spread of the virus. Although numerous other states implemented similar measures, the Michigan stay-at-home orders sparked violent reactions, with anti-lockdown rallies held in April and May, one of which even included an attempt at storming the state Capitol in Lansing.

The most extreme reaction of all was a plot to kidnap Whitmer that ended with the October 7 arrest of thirteen suspects associated with a militia group, the Wolverine Watchmen. With the help of two informants and two undercover agents, the plot was foiled and six of the suspects were charged in federal court for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, a charge that carries a sentence of life imprisonment. The remainder of the conspirators (plus a fourteenth man apprehended subsequently) were charged in state court for lending material support to terrorist acts and firearms crimes.

On December 16, six defendants – alleged plot mastermind Adam Fox, along with Ty Garbin, Barry Croft, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta, were indicted by a grand jury for having plotted “to unlawfully seize, confine, kidnap, abduct and carry away, and hold for ransom and reward, or otherwise, the Governor of the State of Michigan.”

The alleged plot began in early June when, according to the indictment, Fox and Croft met in Ohio “to discuss anti-government actions, including the kidnapping of state governors, and recruiting like-minded individuals to their cause.” The criminal complaint filed by the FBI agent in charge of the case provides further details: “Fox said he needed 200 men to storm the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, and to take hostages, including the Governor. Fox explained they would try the Governor for “treason” and he said they would execute their plan before the November 2020 election.”

On June 18, 2020, Fox met Garbin, a leader of the Wolverine Watchmen, at a rally of armed militia supporters outside the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing. Fox invited Garbin and other Wolverine Watchmen members to meet him in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the intent to recruit them.

The plot swung into high gear over the weekend of July 10-12, when a “field training exercise” (or FTX as the conspirators referred to it) was held “with Wolverine Watchmen members, where the group practiced combat tactics, including assaulting motor vehicles using semiautomatic assault rifles and live ammunition.” As part of the same FTX, four of the conspirators “attempted to detonate two improvised explosive devices,” but without success.

At a further FTX on August 9, the plan to target Whitmer coalesced into a plan to kidnap the governor. To that end, Fox conducted a daytime surveillance of the governor’s home on August 29.

Another FTX took place over the weekend of September 12-13, during which the conspirators “practiced assaulting a building in teams, and discussed tactics for fighting the Governor’s security detail with improvised explosive devices, a projectile launcher, and other weapons.”

That weekend was eventful. In addition to the above activities, four of the conspirators “conducted a nighttime surveillance of the Governor’s vacation home and a nearby public boat ramp, using two-way radios and a night-vision scope…On the way to the nighttime surveillance of the vacation home on September 12, Fox and another conspirator stopped to inspect the underside of a highway bridge near the vacation home for a place to mount an explosive charge.” During that same FTX, “an improvised explosive device containing shrapnel” was detonated “near human silhouette targets hung by the conspirators to assess its effectiveness.” Also over that weekend, Fox “ordered $4,000 worth of explosives from an undercover FBI agent posing as a co-conspirator.”

The conspirators decided to avoid a “Second Amendment March” to be held at the state Capitol on September 18. The rally was held in support of open-carry firearms and to protest the state's stay-at-home orders. The conspirators steered clear because they felt it was important to keep a low profile “if we want to continue with our plans.”

Those plans did continue. On October 2, Fox purchased a “Taser-type high-voltage stunning device.” The last paragraphs of the indictment refer to the events of October 7, when one member of the group “instructed his co-conspirators in an encrypted video message that if they encountered police during a reconnaissance, they should give the officers one opportunity to leave, and kill them if they did not comply.” Finally, Fox and three other conspirators “drove to Ypsilanti, Michigan, to meet the undercover FBI agent posing as a co-conspirator, and use the “group cash” for a good-faith payment towards explosives and other supplies.”

All the members of the group were arrested on the night of October 7 and charged the next day. A fourteenth member of the group was arrested a week later and charged in state court.

In an article she penned for The Atlantic later in the month, Governor Whitmer bitterly blames the President and his “violent rhetoric” and “broadside” against her for inciting the plot: “He is sowing division and putting leaders, especially women leaders, at risk. And all because he thinks it will help his reelection.”

In the 2020 presidential election, Biden carried Michigan by a safe margin of 150,000 votes, flipping a projected red state into the blue column. Whether that was in part due to backlash against the state’s more extreme right-wing elements will be something the pundits will be debating for some time to come.