BURSTA convicted Jan. 6 defendant found guilty of plotting to kill federal agents who investigated his role in the 2021 Capitol attack was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
Prosecutors accused Edward Kelley of developing a "kill list" of FBI agents and others who participated in the investigation into his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, hatching a plan to kill them as he awaited trial in his Capitol attack case.
Following a three-day trial in November, a Tennessee jury convicted him of conspiring to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence and influencing a federal official by threat.
Before that, Kelley was convicted of 11 counts following a two-day bench trial in his Capitol riot case. He was the fourth person to enter the building that day and helped chase U.S. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs while looking for lawmakers certifying the 2020 presidential election results, according to court filings.
When President Trump returned to the White House in January, he pardoned Kelley alongside nearly every other Jan. 6 defendant.
Kelley's attorneys argued that Trump's pardon should also apply to the charges he faced in connection with the murder scheme, an argument several rioters facing other criminal counts attempted in their own cases.
While the Justice Department in some cases agreed that the broad pardons encompassed other alleged actions unrelated to Jan. 6, they declined to side with Kelley.
"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."
U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, agreed and declined in March to toss out Kelley's Tennessee convictions. However, the judge appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's "change in position" and suggested that courts must interpret Trump's pardons themselves, rather than relying solely on the government's representations.
Prosecutors sought a sentence of life imprisonment for Kelley, describing his crimes as "serious and undeniably dangerous." He planned to assassinate specific law enforcement officials and planned an attack on the FBI office in Knoxville using explosives, they said.
Varlan on Wednesday denied Kelley's motion for release pending appeal.