GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Talk of attacking federal agents and bomb making was front and center during day three of the Barry Croft and Adam Fox retrial on Thursday.

The two are accused of orchestrating the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

More FBI agents took the stand Thursday, as the government tries to prove Fox and Croft’s actions were more than just a lot of talk.

At the center of the government’s case against Croft Thursday were meetings recorded during the summer of 2020 by undercover FBI informants in which Croft talks about murdering federal agents.

Croft’s lawyer, Joshua Blanchard, has said all along his client is just a big talker.

But in a video, Croft demonstrated how to build a bomb.

Blanchard was asked if building the explosive device suggests Croft was more than just a talker.

“I don’t think you can call a firework a ‘bomb.’ It was a firework. You’re going to see the actual firework. They’re the kind of things that pregnant women carry around in grocery bags in their cars on the
Fourth of July. It was a consumer firework,” Blanchard said.

Many of the recordings played during Thursday’s testimony were courtesy of one-time FBI informant Steve Robeson.

Special Agent Christopher Long talked about the early days of the undercover investigation and the recruitment of Robeson.

Robeson, who has a long list of criminal convictions, did not testify in the first trial in April and is not expected to appear this time around.

The FBI eventually dismissed Robeson as an informant after accusing him of working as a double agent, claiming he tried to warn others to get rid of evidence, not knowing they were also informants.

“I mean Robeson (has) got all sort of issues. I don’t think they’re going to bring him,” Blanchard said.

“I don’t think we’re going to hear from Robeson. We just get these little snippets from them.”

Blanchard won’t say whether his client will take the stand in his own defense.