Right-wing extremists accused of plotting the kidnapping and execution of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also tried to buy explosives to blow up a bridge near the Democrat's vacation home.
Adam Fox and Barry Croft, two of the anti-government extremists arrested in the plot, were charged along with another man with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and federal firearm violations as part of a scheme to detonate explosives at a bridge to prevent police from reaching Whitmer's home, reported the Washington Post.
"The defendants engaged in domestic terrorism," prosecutors said an indictment filed on Wednesday.
A grand jury in the Western District of Michigan court added new charges against the 40-year-old Fox and 45-year-old Croft, along with another defendant, 23-year-old Daniel Harris.
Fox and Croft conducted surveillance in September on Whitmer's vacation home as part of the kidnapping plot, and prosecutors said they also looked for the best place to "mount an explosive charge" underneath a nearby bridge.
Fox and Croft, both members of the Three Percenters militia group, were angry over coronavirus restrictions imposed by Whitmer, and prosecutors said the recruited "like-minded individuals" to their plot to kidnap her in retaltiation.
One of their fellow conspirators, Ty Garbin, suggested Aug. 30 that they "take down" a bridge leading to Whitmer's vacation home to hinder police from responding, according to court documents, and two weeks later Fox and Croft scoped out a spot to place a bomb -- and even tested one out.
"[Croft and Harris] successfully detonated an improvised explosive device containing shrapnel near human silhouette targets to assess its effectiveness as an anti-personnel weapon," the indictment said.
Fox ordered $4,000 worth of explosives Sept. 13 from a co-conspirator who was actually an undercover FBI agent, and Fox, Harris and another man, Kaleb Franks, drove Oct. 7 to Ypsilanti to buy them.