Man who schemed to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer alleges fellow plotters wanted to use a grenade launcher and machine gun to fight her security at her vacation home

• One of the men who plotted to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said the group was ready to fight security at her vacation home.
• He spoke as a witness in the trial against four other men charged in the Whitmer kidnapping plot.

One of the men who pleaded guilty in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told jurors Thursday that alleged fellow plotters wanted to use a grenade launcher and machine gun to fight security at Whitmer's vacation home, the Associated Press reported.

Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty in February, spoke as a witness in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the trial against four other men charged in the kidnapping plot — Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta.

Franks told jurors that Croft "discussed attacking [Whitmer's] security detail," according to the AP.

"He said he would use the grenade launcher that he had, and he was discussing mounting a machine gun on top of the truck," Franks testified, according to the AP.

Franks told jurors that he became part of the kidnapping scheme after meeting two members in militia group the "Wolverine Watchmen," and said that his role was to be an "operator," the AP reported.

"I would be one of the people on the front line, so to speak, using my gun," Franks said.

Prosecutors have said recorded conversations, texts, and testimony from participants show that the accused plotters planned to kidnap Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan.

Prosecutors said the plotters also planned to blow up a bridge near Whitmer's home to delay a police response.

Both Franks and fellow plotter Ty Garbin, who pleaded guilty in January, testified that the group had plans to kidnap Whitmer and take her, by boat, into Lake Michigan, according to the AP.

They testified that Fox, the group's alleged leader, believed Whitmer's COVID-19 restrictions in Michigan were "tyrannical" and they had a constitutional right to fight back, according to the AP.

Franks, Garbin, Fox, Croft, Harris, and Caserta were all arrested in October 2020.

Defense attorneys are aiming to prove the group had no real plot, but instead, just violent musings about Whitmer and other government officials who they believed were tampering with their personal freedoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, Insider's Ben Jacobs previously reported.