DETROIT — A Hartland Township man pleaded guilty Wednesday to plotting with several others to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, securing the first conviction in a high-profile case involving violent extremism in Michigan.
Federal prosecutors revealed new details early Wednesday hours before Ty Garbin, 25, pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids. The kidnapping conspiracy charge is punishable by up to life in federal prison and Garbin will be sentenced July 8.
Garbin has agreed to “fully cooperate” with the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Michigan State Police and the Attorney General’s Office in ongoing investigations and cases in federal and state court, according to the plea deal. He also has agreed to submit to polygraph tests and testify against the others charged in the kidnap plot.
“It might mean some day you are called to the courtroom and obligated to tell the truth … even if it ends up hurting people you know. Do you think you could do that?” the judge asked Garbin.
“I could, Your Honor,” Garbin said.
The development comes two weeks after Garbin was ordered to stand trial alongside five others accused in the kidnapping plot. Garbin was arrested three months ago and the FBI said agents had thwarted a kidnapping plot motivated by anger over state restrictions on travel and business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The six are charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, a felony punishable by up to life in prison. Eight others are facing terrorism-related charges in state court.
The conspiracy described by FBI agents involved surveilling Whitmer’s vacation home in northern Michigan and training with firearms and improvised explosive devices.
Co-conspirators are accused of discussing kidnapping Whitmer and leaving her in the middle of Lake Michigan. They also allegedly discussed “taking out” a second politician, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, and targeting other elected officials, including former President Donald Trump.
Defense lawyers have portrayed their clients as tough talkers who were exercising their First Amendment rights and who never carried out any kidnapping plot.
The FBI portrays Garbin in court filings as a willing participant in planning an attack on Whitmer at her vacation home in northern Michigan, hosting training sessions at his rural property in Luther and helping build an improvised explosive device comprised of black powder, balloons, a fuse and BBs for shrapnel.
He used emojis in one private chat while suggesting to blow up a bridge near the property to hinder law enforcement and joined a nighttime surveillance run at the governor’s vacation home, according to the FBI.
Prosecutors accused Garbin of training for an attack to overthrow the government, and suggested “shooting up the governor’s vacation home,” according to FBI Special Agent Richard Trask.
“He said he was ‘cool’ with going after the governor’s vacation home, however, even if it only resulted in destruction of property,” the agent wrote in an affidavit. “Garbin offered to paint his personal boat black to support the surveillance of the vacation home from the lake where the vacation home is situated.”
Garbin and three others, Lake Orion resident Daniel Harris, Waterford Township resident Kaleb Franks and Canton Township resident Brandon Caserta were members of the Wolverine Watchmen, a self-styled militia group based in Michigan, according to the plea deal.
Garbin will admit he met another accused kidnap plotter, Adam Fox of Potterville, at a Second Amendment Rally outside the state Capitol in June, prosecutors said. Fox wanted to recruit 200 people to storm the Capitol, capture politicians, put them on trial for treason and hang them on live television, according to the government.
The plea deal includes new details about the alleged plot. In an encrypted chat Sept. 19, Fox told Garbin and others that he was preparing the basement of a vacuum cleaner supply shop near Grand Rapids so the group could train to kidnap Whitmer.
“That sounds pretty tight,” Caserta texted the group, according to the plea deal.
Fox said he had a Taser and zip ties, “which would be good for ‘neutralizing’ the governor,” according to the plea deal.
