An American navy veteran was sentenced Wednesday to life in jail for plotting to assault an FBI workplace and assassinate legislation enforcement officers in retaliation for his arrest on fees that he was a part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, court docket information present.
Edward Kelley was one of many first rioters to breach the Capitol. Almost two years later, he made plans with one other man to assault the FBI workplace in Knoxville, Tenn., utilizing improvised explosive gadgets hooked up to autos and drones, in keeping with prosecutors.
Final November, a jury convicted Kelley of conspiring to homicide federal workers, solicitation to commit a criminal offense of violence and influencing federal officers by risk.
Kelley, 36, acquired a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump for his Jan. 6 convictions, however a choose agreed with prosecutors that Trump’s motion didn’t prolong to Kelley’s Tennessee case. That makes Kelley, who’s from Maryvale, Tenn., one in all only some Capitol riot defendants remaining in jail after Trump’s sweeping act of clemency.
U.S. District Decide Thomas Varlan handed down Kelley’s life sentence throughout a listening to in Knoxville, in keeping with court docket information. The choose denied a request for Kelley to be launched pending the result of an enchantment.
Prosecutors had really helpful a life sentence for Kelley, saying he was remorseless and incapable of rehabilitation.
“Quite the opposite, Kelley not solely believes the actions for which he was convicted have been justified however that his responsibility as a self-styled ‘patriot’ compelled him to focus on East Tennessee legislation enforcement for assassination,” they wrote.
Kelley served within the Marine Corps for eight years. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan earlier than his 2015 discharge from the navy.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Kelley was captured on video serving to two different rioters throw a Capitol Police officer onto the bottom and utilizing a bit of wooden to wreck a window, in keeping with the FBI. He was the fourth individual to enter the Capitol by means of a damaged window, the FBI mentioned.
At a press convention in Washington, D.C. Jan. 22, 2025, former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges, condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s pardons for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol constructing on Jan. 6, 2021. Each officers have been attacked in the course of the Jan. 6 assault.
After a trial with out a jury, a federal choose in Washington convicted Kelley final November of 11 counts stemming from the riot. Earlier than Kelley might be sentenced, Trump pardoned him and a whole bunch of different convicted Capitol rioters.
Kelley argued that his pardon was broad sufficient to cowl his conduct within the Tennessee case, however the choose disagreed. Varlan mentioned Kelley’s crimes within the Tennessee case have been separated from Kelley’s conduct on Jan. 6 “by years and miles.” Prosecutors reached the identical conclusion.
In different Jan. 6 instances, nonetheless, Trump’s Justice Division has argued that the pardons apply to separate convictions. For example, prosecutors concluded {that a} Kentucky man’s pardon for storming the Capitol additionally coated his conviction for illegally possessing weapons when FBI brokers searched his house for the Jan. 6 investigation.
Kelley has been jailed since December 2022. His lawyer, Mark Brown, mentioned Kelley didn’t damage anyone or straight threaten anyone with violence. Brown urged the choose to reject prosecutors’ request to use a “terrorism enhancement” in calculating his consumer’s sentence.
Lower than 24 hours after being pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump, among the convicted Jan. 6 rioters have been launched from jail. On his first day in workplace, Trump pardoned roughly 1,600 offenders and commuted the sentences of greater than a dozen individuals.
“Kelley doesn’t deserve the identical sentence as an precise ‘terrorist’ who injured or killed a whole bunch or hundreds of America residents,” Brown wrote.
Kelley’s co-defendant, Austin Carter, pleaded responsible to a conspiracy cost in January 2024. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4.
Kelley created an inventory of 36 legislation enforcement officers to focus on for assassination and shared it with Carter, calling it their first “mission,” in keeping with prosecutors. All of the officers have been concerned in Kelley’s Might 2022 arrest on Capitol riot fees and the FBI’s search of his house.
“The proof at trial established that Kelley focused legislation enforcement due to their anticipated position within the civil conflict that Kelley hoped to provoke and due to his animus in the direction of those that participated in his Might 2022 arrest and search of his house,” prosecutors wrote.
