Attorney General Nessel to appeal to state high court
The Michigan Court of Appeals on Monday set aside the convictions of two men who were found guilty of providing material support for an act of terrorism in connection with the 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were convicted alongside co-defendant Joe Morrison, all three accused of having secondary roles in the scheme. Morrison’s conviction was thrown out in June in a precedent-setting decision by a different panel of the same court, which ruled 3-0 that kidnapping is not an underlying violent felony that can support a conviction under Michigan’s terrorism law.
The panel that considered Musico and Bellar’s cases said it was obligated to apply that ruling to the two men as well. All three convictions were overturned on the same technical grounds.
Musico, Bellar and Morrison were not charged with having a direct role in the plot to kidnap Whitmer. Bellar had moved out of state weeks before the FBI made arrests in October 2020, and Morrison and Musico said they, too, were no longer in contact with key figures in the scheme.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel criticized the court’s decision, calling it “linguistic gymnastics.” She said she would ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take up the cases.
The rulings mark the latest legal development in the wide-ranging prosecution of multiple individuals ensnared in the alleged kidnapping plot.