Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said that President Donald Trump reaffirmed to her that he would not be pardoning the two men who were imprisoned for leading a plot to kidnap her in 2020.
The Democratic governor said on Michigan public radio on May 29 that about a month ago, the president asked her how she felt about his potentially pardoning the men, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox.
The men were accused of plotting to kidnap the governor in retaliation for her COVID-19 lockdown policies in 2020.
Both men were convicted of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids in 2022. Separately, Croft was also found guilty of a weapons charge, receiving a nearly 20-year prison sentence. Fox is currently serving a 16-year term. Both men are held in a federal prison in Colorado.
He also said, “[The men] were drinking and I think they said stupid things.”
The Justice Department’s new pardon attorney also recently said that he would take a “hard look” at pardoning both men.
Whitmer took a stand against it.
“I said, ‘I think it would be the wrong decision,’” Whitmer recounted telling the president. “I would oppose it, and he said, ‘OK, I’ll drop it.’”
“No one should hesitate to condemn political violence,” she added.
Afterward, she told an audience at a Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference that she would discuss the matter with Trump further.
“We have an ongoing dialogue now ... very different from the first term,” she said about Trump.
Meanwhile, the White House did not comment on the conversation between the two politicians.
“The White House does not comment on the President’s private meetings, and any speculation about future pardons is just that—speculation,” principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement.
Those pardoned include former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and former Rep. Michael Grimm, both of whom already completed their sentences and would have their records cleared.
The pardons also include Mark Bashaw, a U.S. Army officer who was court-martialed for his refusal to comply with COVID-19 policies. Bashaw served as the Army Public Health Center’s headquarters company commander.
