‘Three Percenters’ Militia Groups Headed by FBI Informants, Court Hears in Whitmer Kidnap Conspiracy Trial

Supporters of the Kentucky Three Percenters militia during a rally by NFAC in Louisville, Ky., on July 25, 2020. (Jeff Dean/AFP via Getty Images)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—At least three groups affiliated with the Three Percenters organization were run by undercover FBI informants, defense attorney Christopher Gibbons said on March 9 during his opening statement in the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnap conspiracy trial.

Gibbons represents Adam Fox, one of the four defendants accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s governor in retaliation for her COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. As the alleged leader of Michigan’s chapter of the Three Percenters—an armed organization named after the notion that 3 percent of the colonists spearheaded the American Revolution—prosecutors say Fox was one of the main players in the failed scheme.

But according to Gibbons, Fox’s so-called role as a high-ranking militia official is, in fact, an FBI concoction.

Gibbons told the jury on March 9 that Fox was appointed to head the Michigan Three Percenters on June 6, 2020, at a convention of the organization’s chapters in Dublin, Ohio.

However, that Dublin convention was organized by FBI informant Steve Robeson, then-head of the Wisconsin Three Percenters who also claimed to be the president of the national organization, Gibbons said.

Other attendees of the June 2020 Dublin meeting were the heads of the Tennessee and Missouri branches of the Three Percenters—also both FBI informants, Gibbons said.

Moreover, Gibbons said the FBI was monitoring the leaders of two other Three Percenters branches: the head of the Virginia branch, as well as Delaware’s leader, co-defendant Barry Croft.

After the meeting, Robeson announced on the Three Percenters’ Facebook page that Fox had become the leader of the Michigan branch. It was around that time that Fox became active with the Wolverine Watchmen, the group associated with the alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer.

Fox was made administrator of the Michigan Three Percenters’ Facebook page created by the FBI informants, Gibbons said.

“He got that Facebook page courtesy of the federal government,” the attorney said.

After being made administrator of the Facebook page, Gibbons said, Fox received a message from another FBI informant named “Mark.” Fox then attended a militia training event in Munith, Michigan, on June 28, 2020, Gibbons said.

The alleged plot escalated from there, until Fox was arrested along with Croft, Daniel Harris, Brandon Caserta, Ty Garbin, and Kaleb Franks in October 2020. According to the government, the defendants were arrested before they could buy explosives from an undercover FBI agent.

Garbin and Franks have pleaded guilty, and will testify against the defendants in the upcoming trial.

The Three Percenters couldn’t be reached for comment, as the group has largely gone offline since the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. Most of the group’s Facebook pages were deleted around that time, while six alleged Three Percenters were indicted in June 2021 for conspiring to obstruct congressional proceedings on Jan. 6.

A jury found one of those men, Guy Reffitt, guilty on March 8 on all five counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, and obstruction of justice. One of his fellow former Texas Three Percenters reportedly testified against Reffitt, the first to go on trial for Jan. 6-related charges.

Threepercenters.org, a message board affiliated with the movement, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment about the claim of FBI informants running at least three state chapters.

Prosecutors didn’t respond to Gibbons’s statement on March 8, other than when U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said during his rebuttal that “giving them a website is not entrapment.” Kessler said the need for so many undercover informants in this case—at least 12 have been disclosed—is because the defendants were extremely dangerous.

“Lives were at risk,” he said, adding that the government will introduce ample evidence during the coming six-week trial as proof that the defendants were planning to kidnap Whitmer.

The trial is set to continue on March 10.