Three man tied to botched plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are found NOT GUILTY by jury

Three final three men accused of being involved in a failed plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer have been found not guilty in the scheme.

William Null, twin brother Michael Null, 41, and Eric Molitor, 39, were found not guilty of providing support for an act of terrorism and a weapons charge. The plan is being portrayed as an example of homegrown terrorism on the eve of the 2020 presidential election.

They were the last of fourteen men charged in state or federal court. Nine others have been convicted.

The Nulls and Molitor were accused of supporting the leaders of the kidnapping scheme by participating in military-style exercises and traveling to Whitmer’s vacation home in northern Michigan.

There was a gasp in the courtroom Friday morning as the jury foreman announced not guilty verdicts, first for the brothers and then for Molitor. The deliberations started on Thursday morning and lasted for several hours on Friday.

Michael Null (left) and William Null (right) at a protest outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. The twin brothers were found innocent on Friday

Eric Molitor, 39, was also found not guilty. He testified in his own defense, admitting that he had attended gun training and made trips to check on Whitmer’s property

The men wept as they hugged their lawyers and supporters.

The main characters, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., were convicted by a different court last year of a kidnapping plot. Croft Jr., 47, received the longest sentence of the four co-conspirators, just one day after his ally Adam Fox was sentenced to 16 years behind bars.

In the final trial, the jury heard fourteen days of testimony in Antrim County, the location of Whitmer’s lakeside estate, 180 miles (297 kilometers) north of the Capitol.

Whitmer’s chief of staff, JoAnne Huls, said the statements were disappointing and would “further embolden and embolden radical extremists who seek to sow division and harm government officials or law enforcement agencies.”

State Attorney General Dana Nessel, whose office handled the lawsuit, said the “rulings are not what we had hoped.”

Authorities have said an attack on Whitmer began simmering during a regional summit of anti-government extremists in Dublin, Ohio, in the summer of 2020.

The main characters, Adam Fox (left) and Barry Croft Jr., were convicted by a different court last year of a kidnapping plot

Fox, Croft and William Null were present while an FBI informant who was also present secretly recorded profanity-laced screeds threatening violence against government officials.

The disgust was also fueled by government-imposed restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to recordings, text messages and social media posts introduced into evidence during the trial.

Molitor and William Null testified in their own defense, admitting that they had attended gun training and made trips to check on Whitmer’s property.

But William Null said he and his brother broke away when the conversation turned to obtaining explosives. Molitor said Fox was “incredibly stupid” and would not commit kidnapping.

Assistant Attorney General William Rollstin urged jurors not to be swayed.

“If you assist in whole or in part, you have satisfied that element of the crime,” Rollstin said in his closing argument Wednesday. ‘Did he help him plan? Did he help him prepare? The answer is absolutely.”

Michael Null did not testify and his attorney took the unusual step of not interviewing witnesses during the trial.

Informants and undercover FBI agents were in the group for months before arrests were made in October 2020. Whitmer suffered no physical injuries.

Nine men were previously convicted in state or federal court, either through guilty pleas or at three other trials, while two others were acquitted.

After the plot was foiled, Whitmer blamed then-President Donald Trump, saying he had “given comfort to those who spread fear, hatred and division.” Outside of office, Trump called the 2022 kidnapping plan a “fake deal.”)

Fox and Croft were convicted at a second trial in August, months after another jury in Grand Rapids, Michigan, failed to reach a verdict but acquitted two other men. Croft, a truck driver from Bear, Delaware, will be sentenced Wednesday.

Fox and Croft met like-minded provocateurs at a summit in Ohio in 2020, trained with weapons in Michigan and Wisconsin and took a drive to “look” at Whitmer’s vacation home with night vision goggles, evidence shows.

“People need to stop the misplaced anger and put the anger where it needs to go, and that is against our tyrannical… government,” Fox declared that spring, as he seethed about COVID-19 restrictions and perceived threats to gun control.

Whitmer was not physically injured. The FBI, which was secretly embedded in the group, ended things in the fall.