‘Anti-government’ extremists, undercover agents and a secret plot: What happened in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case?

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Eric Molitor, 39, and the twin brothers William Null and Michael Null, both 41, were among 14 men – described by the prosecution as “anti-government extremists” associated with the Boogaloo movement – charged with planning to take Ms Whitmer hostage after becoming incensed by the strict lockdown measures she enacted in 2020 in the interest of protecting citizens from the coronavirus. “The individuals in custody are suspected to have attempted to identify the home addresses of law enforcement officers in order to target them, made threats of violence intended to instigate a civil war, and engaged in planning and training for an operation to attack the capital building of Michigan and to kidnap government officials including the governor of Michigan,” added state attorney general Dana Nessel. They don’t want to die in vain though.” According to a court filing citing earlier witness testimony, Molitor and the siblings attended a training session in the town of Luther where a fake “kill house” had been built out of PVC tubing to simulate Ms Whitmer’s property, before allegedly joining Fox and others on a night ride to see the real mansion. Speaking out after the FBI had intervened and made its arrests, Governor Whitmer herself labelled the plotters “sick and depraved men” and wasted no time in laying the blame squarely at Mr Trump’s door, accusing him of inciting hostility against her in interviews with CBS’s Face the Nation and NBC’s Meet the Press and in an article for The Atlantic.