Lawyers for men being charged with a scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought to portray their clients Wednesday as big talkers, wannabes who never meant what they said and, in one case, a pot-smoking "misfit" influenced by an FBI informant he met at a protest.

Defense attorney Christopher Gibbons told jurors during opening statements that Adam Fox was practically homeless, living in the basement of a vacuum shop and brushing his teeth in a restaurant restroom, not a mastermind of the 2020 plot as prosecutors allege.

"Adam Fox did not commit a crime in this case," Gibbons said in a federal courtroom in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Prosecutors say Fox, Brandon Caserta, Barry Croft Jr. and Daniel Harris came up with the plan to snatch Whitmer because they were angry about the COVID-19 protocols imposed by the Democratic governor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Roth said during his opening statement that the men's actions went well beyond talking. He said the men recruited militia, prepared to break into Whitmer's home, tie her up and take her, and planned to blow up a bridge to stop police from quickly responding. Investigators stepped in and stopped a "tragedy" when the men were planning to acquire a bomb to blow up a bridge near Whitmer's home, Roth said.

Jurors will hear from two critical insiders, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and will testify for the government, Roth said.

"They will tell you how real this was. They will tell you that they're going to prison for it," he said.

Roth described Fox and Croft as masterminds of the plot. He said the four wanted to create a "war zone in Michigan," and urged jurors to set aside the defendants' political views and their desire for a "civil war," and Whitmer's job or their thoughts about her.

"What you have is that defendants agreed, planned, trained and were ready to break into a woman's home as she slept with her family in the middle of the night and with violence and at gunpoint they would tie her up and take her from that home," Roth said. "And to accomplish that they would shoot, blow up and kill anybody who got in their way.”

As Roth began his opening, he turned away from jurors and pointed a finger at each defendant, saying they didn't just talk but took active steps to implement their plot. The courtroom lights dimmed and prosecutors projected photos of the defendants at different stages of the alleged plot on a giant screen above defense tables.

In 2020, Whitmer was trading taunts with then-President Donald Trump over his administration's response to COVID-19. Her critics, meanwhile, were regularly protesting at the Michigan Capitol, clogging streets around the statehouse and legally carrying semi-automatic rifles into the building.

The FBI said it thwarted the kidnapping plot with the arrests of the six men in October 2020. Garbin and Franks insist no one acted because of excessive influence by agents or undercover informants.