Second guilty plea planned in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
CBSN
A man charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has agreed to plead guilty, according to documents filed Monday, giving prosecutors a second insider who could be a key witness at a March trial.
Kaleb Franks said he willfully conspired with five other men to kidnap the Democratic governor before FBI agents stepped in and arrested the group in October 2020. The government said they wanted to kidnap Whitmer because of their disgust over her COVID-19 restrictions.
Franks said he "was not entrapped or induced to commit any crimes" by undercover agents or informants. He signed a document agreeing to plead guilty as charged.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.