By Steve Neavling
A Tennessee man pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for plotting to assassinate federal agents and attack an FBI office with explosives, the Associated Press reports.
Edward Kelley, 36, a former Marine, was convicted last year of conspiring to murder federal employees, soliciting violence, and threatening officials. Prosecutors said Kelley planned to use car bombs and drones to attack the FBI’s Knoxville field office in retaliation for his arrest in the Capitol case.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan imposed the life sentence during a hearing in Knoxville and denied a request for Kelley’s release pending appeal. Kelley has been in custody since December 2022.
Prosecutors described Kelley as remorseless and dangerous.
“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,” they wrote in court filings.
Kelley served in the Marine Corps for eight years, with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. On Jan. 6, 2021, he was among the first rioters to breach the Capitol, and was captured on video helping throw a police officer to the ground and damaging a window with a piece of wood, according to the FBI.
Trump pardoned Kelley and other convicted rioters before Kelley could be sentenced in the Capitol case. Kelley argued the pardon also covered his conduct in Tennessee, but Varlan ruled otherwise, saying the two cases were “separated by years and miles.” Prosecutors agreed.
Kelley’s attorney, Mark Brown, asked the court not to apply a terrorism enhancement to the sentence. He argued Kelley “did not hurt anybody or directly threaten anybody with violence.”
