A Michigan state appeals court has thrown out the terrorism convictions of two men who played supporting roles in a 2020 scheme to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Pete Musico and Paul Bellar had each been found guilty of providing material support for an act of terrorism. They, along with a co-defendant named Joe Morrison, were accused of having secondary involvement in the kidnapping plot.
Morrison’s conviction was already overturned back in June in a decision that set a legal precedent. A separate panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals determined it was bound by that earlier ruling and applied it to Musico and Bellar as well.
The court’s reasoning was technical in nature — it found that kidnapping does not count as an underlying violent felony capable of supporting a terrorism charge under Michigan law.
State Attorney General Dana Nessel sharply criticized the decision, calling it “linguistic gymnastics,” and announced she intends to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to review the cases.
None of the three men — Morrison, Musico, or Bellar — were accused of being directly involved in the actual kidnapping plan. Bellar had already relocated out of Michigan several weeks before the FBI made arrests in October 2020. Morrison and Musico maintained they had also cut off contact with the plot’s key figures by that point.
However, all three had previously been members of a paramilitary group that trained alongside Adam Fox, who was prosecuted in federal court as a ringleader of the conspiracy. Fox is currently serving a 16-year federal prison sentence.
The plot called for Whitmer to be abducted from her vacation home shortly before the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors said those involved were enraged by strict COVID-19 restrictions that Whitmer and other state officials had implemented during the early stages of the pandemic, and were also motivated by concerns about gun rights.
Whitmer, a Democrat, was never harmed. Undercover FBI agents and informants had embedded themselves within Fox’s group for months before authorities dismantled the scheme.
The broader investigation yielded uneven results for prosecutors. Of the 14 men charged overall, five were acquitted at trial.
