Mich. Gov. Whitmer says Trump previously told her he'd 'drop' pardon considerations for kidnap conspirators

Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News on May 29, 2025

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President Donald Trump told Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this year that he would not pursue pardons for individuals convicted in a kidnapping plot against the governor, Whitmer told the Michigan Public Radio Network Thursday.

The second-term Democratic governor said she plans to contact the White House and remind Trump aides of that conversation after Trump on Wednesday said he would "take a look at" pardoning Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox.

"I'll be honest with you," Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio Network's Rick Pluta. "I talked to the president about a month ago, and he asked me how I'd feel about this, and I said, 'I think it would be the wrong decision, I would oppose it.' And he said, 'OK, I'll drop it.' Now we see this revelation. So, I'm not sure how to process it."

Whitmer noted she was one of the first officeholders to condemn the attempted assassination of Trump at an outdoor campaign rally last July in Butler, Pa.

"I think anything short of condemning political violence does a disservice to everyone," Whitmer said.

The White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Federal prosecutors portrayed Croft and Fox as the leaders of a group of anti-government extremists who planned to kidnap the governor at her vacation home in northern Michigan.

Croft, 49, and Fox, 42, were arrested in October 2020 and convicted of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids in 2022. Croft, a Delaware man also found guilty of a weapons charge, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, while Fox, a Grand Rapids man, got 16 years behind bars.

Trump on Wednesday said the trial against Fox and Croft appeared to be "somewhat of a railroad job" and argued people say "stupid things."

"I will take a look at it. It's been brought to my attention," Trump told a Detroit News reporter Wednesday in the Oval Office. The Republican president added that "a lot of people from both sides" are asking him about potential pardons for the men.

The president's comments came six days after Ed Martin Jr., the U.S. Justice Department's pardon attorney, said on "The Breana Morello Show" podcast he would take a "hard look" at pardoning the men he called "victims just like January 6."

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,500 people convicted of crimes committed during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including at least 45 Michiganians.

A panel of three judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April affirmed the convictions of Croft and Fox, rejecting claims they'd been entrapped by the FBI and calling the crime a "textbook conspiracy."

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(Detroit News staff writers Craig Mauger, Melissa Nann Burke and Grant Schwab contributed to this story.)

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