Defense attorneys want dismissed the indictment against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, because of what they call “egregious overreaching” by federal agents and informants.

The government alleges that the men were upset over coronavirus restrictions last year when they conspired to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat then spoken about as a possible vice-president, even scouting her second home in northern Michigan.

Five people are charged with kidnapping conspiracy and face trial on 8 March in Grand Rapids. They have pleaded not guilty and claim to be victims of entrapment. Federal prosecutors have argued the men were not entrapped.

In January, a sixth man, 26-year-old Ty Garbin, pleaded guilty. He is serving a six-year federal prison sentence.

In a 20-page motion filed in court on Saturday night, defense attorneys alleged FBI agents and federal prosecutors invented a conspiracy and entrapped people who could face life in prison.

The attorneys asked a US district judge, Robert Jonker, to dismiss the conspiracy charge, which would effectively knock down the government’s case and other connected charges, the Detroit News reported.

The request comes after developments and claims about the government’s team, including the conviction of Richard Trask, an FBI special agent arrested on a domestic violence charge and later fired.

“Essentially, the evidence here demonstrates egregious overreaching by the government’s agents and by the informants those agents handled,” defense attorneys wrote in their filing.

“When the government was faced with evidence showing that the defendants had no interest in a kidnapping plot, it refused to accept failure and continued to push its plan.”

Messages left with the US attorney for the western district of Michigan and the US Department of Justice were not immediately returned.