Kaleb Franks (27 years old) will plead guilty in a deal that was approved by his lawyers and the prosecutors to kidnapping conspiracy. This charge can lead to a life sentence in prison.
Franks will be tried in March at the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan. He is expected to admit that he conspired from June 2020 to Oct 2020 to kidnap Whitmer.
After pleading guilty to the charges, another man was sentenced to just over six years imprisonment. He also agreed to testify against other extremists from the “Wolverine Watchmen,” militia, who were implicated in the plot.
Ty Garbin was the first person to be convicted for plotting to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation house. More than a dozen people have been charged with federal or state court since the FBI discovered the plot by the militia group.
Prosecutors claimed that the plotters sought Whitmer’s capture as retribution for the wide-ranging public orders against health that were imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Violent threats are becoming a more prominent factor in American politics. These threats include the hundreds who stormed Congress on Jan. 6, 2021 to overthrow then-president Donald Trump’s defeat in November 2020.
Whitmer was a co-chairman of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. He previously accused Republican Trump, among others, of exaggerating far-right groups, as he decried COVID mitigation efforts in states controlled by Democrats.
