Agent: Gov. Whitmer kidnap plotters ‘excited’ about bomb

By ED WHITE
Associated Press

An FBI agent who was working undercover says two key people in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor were excited to get their hands on explosives. Tim Bates testified Monday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the 11th day of trial. Four men are charged with conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The government says they were armed extremists angry over Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies. In summer 2020, Bates was working undercover as “Red.” He fooled the group into believing that he knew someone in the mining industry who could get high-grade explosives. Defense attorneys deny there was an actual plan to kidnap Whitmer.