President Trump said Wednesday that he watched the prosecutions of men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and that "it looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job." So he's going to consider pardoning them. "You know, they were drinking, and I think they said stupid things, but I'll take a look at that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during the swearing-in of Jeanine Pirro, the new US attorney for Washington, DC, NBC News reports.
More than a dozen were charged with conspiring to kidnap the Democratic governor, several of whom were convicted on state charges—putting them out of Trump's reach. The pardon talk began last week when the Justice Department's new pardon attorney, whose dropped nomination cleared the way for Pirro to get her new job, said last week he'll take a "hard look" at the case, per CBS News. Ed Martin suggested the prosecutions reflected "weaponization of government." Barry Croft Jr., the ringleader, was sentenced to over 19 years in prison and Adam Fox to 16 years.
Martin likened the cases of Croft and Fox to those of the people who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, all of whom received full pardons from Trump, per the Detroit Free Press. The men's lawyers argued that the two were entrapped by the FBI and that they were just spouting off crudely about the pandemic. A federal appeals court considered those arguments but upheld their convictions last month. It's unusual for a pardon attorney to discuss a case publicly, even when a convict has filed a pardon application, per the Free Press. Fox and Croft do not appear to have made such a filing with the Justice Department. (More President Trump stories.)
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