Feb 7 (Reuters) – A second person accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 has agreed to plead guilty and testify at trial in March, a federal court filing showed on Monday .

Kaleb Franks, 27, will plead guilty to kidnapping conspiracy, in a plea deal approved by prosecutors and his lawyers. The charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Franks is due to stand trial in March in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan alongside four other people charged in the case and will admit to conspiring from June 2020 to October 2020 to kidnap Democrat Whitmar.

In August last year, another man who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the conspiracy was sentenced to just over six years in prison, after also agreeing to testify against fellow extremists in the Wolverine Watchmen militia. “charged with conspiracy. Read more

Ty Garbin was the first to be convicted of conspiring to abduct Whitmer from his vacation home. Since the FBI said it uncovered the militia members’ plot, more than a dozen men have been charged in state or federal court.

Prosecutors said the alleged conspiracy participants were seeking capture by Whitmer in retaliation for sweeping public health orders imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

Violent threats have become a growing factor in American politics, ranging from the hundreds of people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, trying to overturn President Donald Trump’s election defeat in November 2020, to phone threats made election workers. Read more

Whitmer, who served as co-chair of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, previously accused Republican Trump of promoting far-right groups as he denounced COVID mitigation efforts that have been carried out in ruled states. by Democrats.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bangalore; edited by Grant McCool

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