A jury has acquitted three men in the last trial connected to a plan to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
William Null, twin brother Michael Null and Eric Molitor were found not guilty of providing support for a terrorist act and a weapon charge.
They were the last of 14 men to face charges in state or federal court. Nine were convicted and now five have been cleared.
The trio were accused of supporting leaders of the plan by participating in military-style drills and traveling to see Ms Whitmer’s holiday home in northern Michigan. The key players, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr, were convicted of a kidnapping conspiracy last year in a different court.
In the latest trial, the jury heard 14 days of evidence in Antrim County, the location of Ms Whitmer’s lakeside property.
There were gasps in the courtroom on Friday morning as the jury foreperson announced not guilty verdicts, first for the brothers and then Molitor. Deliberations began on Thursday morning and lasted for a few more hours on Friday.
The men cried as they hugged their lawyers and supporters.
“You gentlemen are free to leave,” Judge Charles Hamlyn said.
Authorities have said the plot started at a regional summit of anti-government extremists in Dublin, Ohio, in summer 2020. Fox, Croft and William Null were in attendance while an FBI informant also inside the gathering secretly recorded profanity-laced speeches threatening violence against public officials.
The disgust was also fuelled by government-imposed restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to recordings, text messages and social media posts introduced as evidence at trial.
Ms Whitmer’s chief of staff, JoAnne Huls, said the verdicts were disappointing and would “further encourage and embolden radical extremists trying to sow discord and harm public officials or law enforcement”.
State attorney general Dana Nessel, whose office handled the trial, said the “verdicts are not what we hoped for”.
Molitor, 39, and William Null, 41, gave evidence in their own defence, admitting they had attended gun drills and taken rides to check Ms Whitmer’s property. But William Null said he and his brother broke away when talk turned to getting explosives. Molitor said Fox was “incredibly dumb” and would not pull off a kidnapping.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, prosecutor William Rollstin urged jurors to not be swayed.
“If you help in whole or even in part you’ve satisfied that element” of the crime, he said. “Was he helping him to plan? Was he helping him prepare? The answer is absolutely.”
Michael Null, 41, did not give evidence and his lawyer took the unusual step of declining to question any witnesses during the trial. Tom Siver said Michael Null did nothing wrong.
Informants and undercover FBI agents were inside the group for months before arrests were made in October 2020. Ms Whitmer was not physically harmed.
Nine men were previously convicted in state or federal court, either through guilty pleas or at three other trials. Shawn Fix and Brian Higgins pleaded guilty in Antrim County and had agreed to co-operate but were never called as prosecution witnesses at the last trial.
After the plot was thwarted, Ms Whitmer blamed then-president of the United States Donald Trump, saying he had given “comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division”. Out of office, Mr Trump called the kidnapping plan a “fake deal” in 2022.
