Jan 6 defendant sentenced to life in prison for plotting to kill FBI special agents who investigated him

A Jan. 6 defendant who plotted to kill FBI special agents who investigated his role in the 2021 Capitol riots has been sentenced to life in prison.

Edward Kelley of Maryville, Tennessee, was one of the first insurrectionists to storm the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat to former President Joe Biden.

Almost two years later, the 36-year-old former Marine was accused of developing a “kill list” of 36 federal agents and hatching a murder plot as he awaited trial for his role in the riots.

Prosecutors said Kelley and another man, Austin Carter, planned to attack an FBI office in Knoxville using improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles and drones. Federal prosecutors said he performed “combat drills” and told his “confederates” that “every hit has to hurt.”

Kelley was convicted last November of conspiring to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence and influencing a federal official by threat.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan handed down the life sentence on Wednesday during a hearing in Knoxville. Kelley’s request to be released pending the outcome of an appeal was denied.

In January, Kelley was among the 1,500 Trump supporters pardoned by the president for crimes connected with the Washington, D.C., attack.

Kelley’s defense attorneys and federal prosecutors locked horns over whether the pardon shielded him from the separate Tennessee murder‑plot conviction. Varlan sided with prosecutors, citing the clear separation in time and place.

The government sought life in prison for Kelley, as they saw him as a “remorseless” criminal who had “shown neither a capacity nor desire” to rehabilitate.

“On the contrary, Kelley not only believes the actions for which he was convicted were justified but that his duty as a self-styled ‘patriot’ compelled him to target East Tennessee law enforcement for assassination,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Defense attorney Mark Brown argued that “no individual was directly threatened with harm or violence by Kelley, and no one was injured.”

“Kelley does not deserve the same sentence as an actual ‘terrorist’ who injured or killed hundreds or thousands of American citizens,” the lawyer wrote.

On Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI said Kelley was captured on video helping two other rioters throw a Capitol Police officer onto the ground.

The anti-abortion activist who sported a sweatshirt reading TCAPP – “The Church At Planned Parenthood” – became the fourth person to enter the Capitol building, allegedly using a piece of wood to damage a window.