Trump weighs pardons of people convicted for Whitmer's 2020 kidnapping plot
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is considering pardons for the people involved in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
Trump insinuated that the trial had not been handled correctly by the legal system while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, describing it as potentially being a 'railroad job.'
'I will look at it — take a look at it,' he said when asked if he is considering pardons. 'It's been brought to my attention, I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, I'll be honest with you. It looked to me like some people said some stupid things.'
'They were drinking and I think they said stupid things but I'll take a look at that, and a lot of people are asking me that question from both sides actually,' he continued. 'A lot of people think they got railroaded.'
The kidnapping plot against the Michigan Democrat rattled the final weeks of the 2020 election and marked an incident of anti-government extremism that prosecutors said was intended to ignite a civil war. The leaders, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox, were convicted in 2022 of conspiring to abduct the Democratic governor from her vacation home.
Croft, a former truck driver from Delaware, also faced weapons charges and received a nearly 20-year prison sentence. Fox, from Grand Rapids, was sentenced to 16 years.
A spokesperson for Whitmer declined to comment on Trump's remarks.
The president was not the first member of his administration to question the charges. Ed Martin, who was tapped to serve as the pardon attorney at the Justice Department after Trump pulled his nomination to be the top federal prosecutor for Washington, compared Croft's and Fox's cases to the January 6 pardons last week.
'In my opinion these are victims just like January 6,' Martin said during an interview on 'The Breanna Morello Show,' referencing the roughly 1,600 people either pardoned by Trump for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol or who saw their cases dropped.
Trump's remarks also come as he builds a working relationship with Whitmer. The two have shared several cordial moments in recent months, with Whitmer defending her appearances alongside Trump as key to scoring major wins for her home state, while underscoring their sharp policy differences.
'This is one of those moments where as a public servant, you're reminded your job is to put service above self, and that's what it was all about,' she said in a recent 'Pod Save America' interview.
Zack Stanton contributed to this report.
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