An eighth man faces a criminal charge in connection with the alleged plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer and put her on trial over her COVID-19 orders.
51-year-old Brian Higgins is being held in Wisconsin awaiting extradition to Antrim County in northwest Michigan.
Attorney General Dana Nessel is charging him with material support of a plan by alleged terrorists in a group that called itself the “Wolverine Watchmen” to grab Whitmer from her vacation home – ostensibly to put her on trial for what they called “treason.”
The group also discussed plans to storm the state Capitol and to track law enforcement officers.
“These were very credible and very serious threats to our elected officials and the public in general, and the swift actions taken by state and federal authorities this past week are nothing short of heroic,” Nessel said in the statement announcing the charge.
An affidavit says Higgins participated in surveillance of the governor’s family vacation home using night goggles and recording on a digital dashboard camera.
Higgins could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The Michigan State Police and the FBI described the Wolverine Watchmen as an “anti-government, anti-law enforcement militia group.”
Seven other men purportedly linked to the group were charged in state court last week with providing material support for terrorist acts. Federal charges also have been filed against six others in the alleged conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer.
An FBI agent also testified some of the men were part of another alleged plot targeting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.
One other suspect is still awaiting extradition from South Carolina.
