One of the men charged in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was kicked out of a local militia earlier this year for rage issues and at one point tried to start a fight with racial justice protesters, according to a senior member of the organization.
Adam Fox, 37, was allegedly a key player in a plot by right-wing militant groups busted by the FBI this week to kidnap Whitmer at her vacation home and is one of 13 men charged with state and federal crimes.
Fox could not be reached for comment this week.
Fox was kicked out of Michigan Home Guard earlier this year after threatening other members and showing inappropriate levels of anger, according to group cofounder Rick Foreman. Foreman said that when he saw Fox’s name come up as part of the alleged kidnapping plot, he wasn’t surprised.
“When I saw that he was involved, I called up the guy that [introduced him to the group] and I said, ‘See I told you so,’” he said.
Foreman said Fox attempted to join Michigan Home Guard last December and made it through the three-month initiation period smoothly. But as soon as he became a full member, his personality changed.
“He has rage issues,” Foreman said. “He seemed fine until it was time for him to get patched in. And then all of the sudden he’s all anti-government, he wants to start a war, he wants to take people out.”
Foreman said members of the group believed Fox was taking steroids and regularly teased him for having “roid rage.” Foreman said Fox’s social media posts about taking out the government quickly raised red flags. “That’s not what the militia does,” he added.
Fox eventually threatened another member and both he and his girlfriend were kicked out, said Foreman. Foreman said Fox responded by lashing out further.
“He threatened me. He threatened some of the other people,” Foreman said.
Foreman also recounted a story where Fox tried to start a confrontation with racial justice protesters in front of the state capitol. Michigan Home Guard and other groups were gathering in June for an “American Patriot rally” that came into a counterprotest by the racial justice group the People of Lansing (now called the Free People of Lansing). Foreman said an agreement was made to have the racial justice protesters march through the larger rally, but Fox wasn’t having it.
Foreman said Fox wanted to physically block the counterprotesters and was looking to spark a physical confrontation. He said others calmed Fox down and the People of Lansing marched through peacefully. The two people he credited with calming Fox down are Mike and Bill Null, two other people charged as part of the FBI investigation.
“I’ve always pictured Mike and Bill as pretty level-headed guys,” said Foreman. “I don’t know what they were thinking.”
A spokesperson for the Free People of Lansing confirmed this series of events, but said it was more than just Fox who opposed them passing through.
“We encountered multiple militia members who, when we began our demonstration on the ground, held guns over our heads, spit on, stepped on [us] while blowing bull horns in our ears and called us racial epithets,” said the spokesperson, who did not give their name, via the group’s Facebook account. “There were a few people [on the other side] who did stop them, saying it was our Second Amendment right to be there.”