The final defendant and co-leader in the plot to abduct Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) learned his fate Wednesday.
A judge sentenced Barry Croft Jr. to 19 years and seven months behind bars. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence.
A Grand Rapids-area jury found Croft and fellow co-leader Adam Fox guilty of kidnapping conspiracy charges and attempting to obtain a weapon of mass destruction.
They planned to use explosives to demolish a bridge to ease their escape.
The New York Times reports:
The man, Barry Croft, a truck driver who had spoken of wanting to foment civil war and had traveled repeatedly to the Midwest for training and planning sessions in the months before his arrest, was the last of the men convicted in federal court to learn his prison term. Judge Robert J. Jonker of the Federal District Court in Western Michigan delivered his sentence just four days before Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, was scheduled to be sworn in for a second term as governor.
In court on Wednesday, Nils Kessler, a federal prosecutor, told the judge that Mr. Croft provided the ideological impetus for the plot, and that his conduct was similar in many ways to the actions of foreign terrorists.
“He's the spiritual leader of this group, this movement, the same way some sheikh in ISIS might be,” Mr. Kessler said. Later, he added that “what ISIS or Al Qaeda calls a mujahedeen, he calls a patriot.”
Barring a successful appeal, Mr. Croft's sentencing brings an end to one of the most closely watched federal domestic terror prosecutions in recent history, though some men accused of related crimes in state court are still awaiting trial.
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