Following the arrest of 13 far-right extremists for allegedly plotting to kidnap and potentially kill Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s attorney general alerted the country that such domestic terrorism attempts are “not just a Michigan problem.” On Tuesday, less than a week after Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel’s warning, the FBI revealed that some of the same extremist figures involved in the Michigan plot had also discussed abducting Virginia governor Ralph Northam. Earlier this year, members of various militias gathered in Dublin, Ohio to propose “taking a sitting governor,” according to FBI Special Agent Richard Trask. They singled out the two Democratic governors as “possible targets” specifically due to their lockdown orders, which Northam and Whitmer implemented in late March to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreaks in their respective states.
“The understanding at the time was to potentially kidnap a sitting governor and remove them from office,” Trask said on Tuesday while testifying before the Michigan federal court responsible for five of the suspects’ bond hearings. He also noted that the suspects were part of a broader network of similarly minded extremists who had initially connected online. He did not disclose any details regarding how the suspects planned to abduct Northam, or if they had made any concrete steps toward doing so, but in Whitmer’s case, he explained that “ultimately” they wanted to “take her and place her on trial at a different location.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Northam’s office, which the FBI had alerted throughout the investigation, assured the public that “at no time was the governor or his family in imminent danger. Enhanced security measures have been in place for Governor Northam and his family for quite some time, and they will remain.”
While one of the first large-scale anti-lockdown protests was held outside the Michigan State Capitol a few weeks after Whitmer issued her March 24 stay-at-home order, a similar protest took place in Richmond in response to Northam’s temporary shutdown that began on March 30. The Lansing protest, nicknamed “Operation Gridlock,” saw right-wing militia members and Trump supporters march inside and around the statehouse while armed with AR-15 and Kalashnikov variants. After the Michigan protest was praised by Donald Trump and heavily promoted on Fox News and conservative talk radio, it went on to inspire anti-lockdown protests across the country. Upon seeing the protests, Trump cheered on the organizers and attendees, tweeting, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
Fittingly, armed militia groups actually rallied against Northam earlier this year while specifically citing the Second Amendment. In January, Northam declared a state of emergency in the days leading up to an anti-gun control protest that attracted an estimated crowd of 22,000, a number of whom were open-carrying semi-automatic rifles outside of the Capitol Square area in Richmond.
The threats against Whitmer and Northam are in line with the broader trend of increased white-extremist violence and right-wing militia activity. While addressing these movements before Congress last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray named “racially motivated violent extremism” as the top domestic terrorism threat in America, saying that racist extremists account for “the biggest chunk.” After noting that the specific extremist motivations vary among different groups or movements, Wray explained that these kinds of threats caused the FBI to elevate “racially motivated extremism to be a national threat priority commensurate with homegrown violent extremists.”
As stated by the Michigan attorney general last week, the suspects charged in the kidnapping case “are affiliated with this [Michigan-based] Wolverine Watchmen group.” Nessel added, “But there are multiple white supremacy groups and militia groups that have been acting in accordance with one another.” As for their specific ideologies, Nessel noted that the abduction schemes align with what white supremacist and radical anti-government groups call the “Boogaloo” movement, i.e. an accelerationist plot to spark a civil war or violent uprising via small terrorist attacks that are intended to have a domino effect that inspires like-minded Americans to carry out similar violent actions across the U.S. “This effort to have a mass uprising nationally is something that we should be very concerned about,” Nessel said.
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