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Pardoned Capitol rioter sentenced to life for assassination plots



A military veteran who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was pardoned
by President Donald Trump, has now been sentenced to life in prison—this time,
for plotting to assassinate dozens of federal agents.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan handed down the sentence to
Edward Kelley, a former Marine from Maryville, Tennessee, after a jury
convicted him of conspiring to murder federal employees, soliciting a violent
crime, and attempting to influence federal officials through threats.

Kelley—one of the first rioters to breach the Capitol—was caught on video
helping throw a police officer to the ground and using a piece of wood to smash
a window. He was the fourth person to enter the building through that shattered
glass, according to the FBI.

But it was what came after Jan. 6 that sealed his fate.




 



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Nearly two years later, Kelley teamed up with another man to plot a violent
attack on the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee, field office. Prosecutors said the
plan involved using car bombs and drones rigged with explosive devices. While
awaiting trial for his role in the Capitol attack, Kelley also compiled a “kill
list” of 36 law enforcement officers—many of them connected to his 2022
arrest—whom he intended to assassinate.

During Wednesday’s hearing, more than a dozen of those targets sat in the
courtroom as Kelley received his sentence. Judge Varlan also denied Kelley’s
request for release pending appeal.

“The proof at trial established that Kelley targeted law enforcement because
of their anticipated role in the civil war that Kelley hoped to initiate and
because of his animus,” prosecutors wrote. They described Kelley as a
“self-styled ‘patriot’” who felt justified in targeting federal agents,
motivated by vengeance and extreme ideology.

Kelley used encrypted messaging apps to coordinate with coconspirators,
including Austin Carter, who is scheduled for sentencing next month. Carter
testified that he and Kelley conducted military-style training in late 2022.

Despite Trump’s sweeping Day One clemency order for more than 1,500 Jan. 6
defendants, the judge ruled that Kelley’s plot—which centered on an
assassination plan in Tennessee—was unrelated and therefore not covered.

“The offenses for which the defendant was found guilty by an East Tennessee
jury are the products of the defendant’s independent volitional acts,”
prosecutors wrote in a February court filing. “They are not related to events
at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

Kelley, who served eight years in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq
and Afghanistan, is now one of the few Jan. 6 rioters still behind bars
following Trump’s blanket pardons. He’s hardly the only one who reoffended.




 



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In stark contrast, another Jan. 6 participant—former FBI agent Jared L. Wise,
who was reportedly recorded yelling “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” as rioters
attacked police—isn’t in prison. He now works inside Trump’s Department of
Justice, advising the so-called “Weaponization Working Group” alongside pardon
attorney Ed Martin.

Kelley’s case underscores just how far some rioters were willing to go—and how
wildly their fates have diverged.



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