Trio convicted of supporting terrorism in plot to kidnap Michigan governor

Three men accused of supporting terrorism in a plot to kidnap Michigan‘s governor were convicted of all charges on Wednesday.

Joe Morrison, his father-in-law Pete Musico, and Paul Bellar were found guilty of supplying “material support” for a terrorist act as members of a group known as the Wolverine Watchmen.

They held gun drills in rural Michigan with Adam Fox who led the scheme to kidnap the state’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Fox and three others have already been convicted of conspiracy in the main case and jurors in a state court in Jackson, Michigan, read and heard violent, anti-government screeds as well as support for a civil war that might be triggered by an abduction.

“The facts drip out slowly,” state Assistant Attorney General Bill Rollstin told the jury, “and you begin to see — wow — there were things that happened that people knew about. ... When you see how close Adam Fox got to the governor, you can see how a very bad event was thwarted.”

Morrison, 28, Musico, 44, and Bellar, 24, were also convicted of a gun crime and membership in a gang with prosecutors describing the Wolverine Watchmen as a criminal enterprise.

All three were sent to jail while they await sentencing on December 15.

The verdicts “are further proof that violence and threats have no place in our politics,” said Whitmer, who has not participated as a trial witness or spectator in the cases.

“Those who seek to sow discord by pursuing violent plots will be held accountable under the law.”

Defense attorneys argued Morrison, Musico and Bellar had broken ties with Fox by late summer 2020 when the Whitmer plot came into focus.

Unlike Fox and others, they didn’t travel to northern Michigan to scout the governor’s vacation home or participate in a key weekend training session inside a “shoot house.”

“In this country you are allowed to talk the talk, but you only get convicted if you walk the walk,” Musico’s attorney, Kareem Johnson, said in his closing remarks.

Whitmer, who is seeking reelection on November 8, was never physically harmed. Undercover agents and informants were inside Fox’s group for months and the scheme was broken up with 14 arrests in October 2020.