Three men the state said helped plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were in court on Monday.
Judge Michael Klaeren dropped a 20-year felony against two of the men. The decision challenged the Michigan Attorney General’s office over the charges against Pete Musico and Joseph Morrison.
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The men had been charged with making terroristic threats online and in secret conversations on encrypted apps. The state said that both men spent time and money to train so they could attempt to kidnap Gov. Whitmer.
The judge threw out the terroristic threats charge. The judge said the charges couldn’t stand because the men had made the threats in private.
The judge said it would be different if “one or more of the defendants had yelled it out to the general public and the general public had heard it.”
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