A Michigan county judge has dismissed the terrorism charges against three men accused in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
According to The Detroit News, Judge Michael Klaeren of the 12th District Court in Jackson County, Michigan, dismissed the charges of false report and threat of terrorism against Paul Bellar, Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico.
“There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem,” said Klaeren.
Bellar, 21; Morrison 42; and Musico, 36, are among six men who have been charged in the plot to kidnap Whitmer: Shawn Fix, 38; Michael Null, 38; and William Null, 38. According to the FBI, the men planned to kidnap Whitmer at the governor’s vacation home prior to last Election Day.
The state’s attorney general has arrested seven more people connected to the plan.
The plot allegedly called for the members of the Michigan militia, according to a federal affidavit, to attempt to identify the homes of law enforcement officers to “target them, made threats of violence intended to instigate a civil war.”
“Several members talked about murdering ‘tyrants’ or ‘taking’ a sitting governor,” an FBI agent wrote in the affidavit. “The group decided they needed to increase their numbers and encouraged each other to talk to their neighbors and spread their message.”
Those accused reportedly found issues in what they called Whitmer’s inability to manage the governance of Michigan. The FBI shared comments from one of the accused assailants as saying Whitmer “has no checks and balances at all. She has uncontrolled power right now. All good things must come to an end.”
Whitmer has been praised but also often criticized for the state’s response to the coronavirus. She placed stringent restrictions on personal movement throughout the state and on the economy, although many of those limits have been lifted.
Klaeren ordered Bellar, Morrison and Musico to stand trial on three remaining charges, gang membership and providing material support for terrorism, both punishable by up to 20 years in prison, as well as felony firearm, punishable by up to two years in prison.