GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - Two men accused of crafting a plan to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 and ignite a national rebellion are facing a second trial this week, months after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the pair while acquitting two others.The result in April was a blow to federal prosecutors, who had set out to show that extremists were committed to snatching Whitmer and causing chaos close to the election between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump.The trial of Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.
means another public airing of secretly recorded conversations, text messages and chilling social media posts. It also comes at a time of intense news coverage of the U.S.
House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol.Jurors will see how undercover FBI agents and informants had infiltrated the Michigan group.
In response, defense attorneys again will argue that Fox and Croft were shielded by the First Amendment when they expressed malicious opinions about government and were entrapped every step of the way."The stakes are higher because the government has doubled down," Matthew Schneider, a former U.S.