By Steve Neavling
A 26-year-old security officer and member of the Army Reserves pleaded guilty last week to conspiring with a Jan. 6 defendant to “murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigations,” NBC News reports.
In a plea agreement, Austin Carter, of Tennessee, admitted he “unlawfully and knowingly combined, conspired, and agreed with his co-defendant,” Edward Kelley, to kill FBI personnel at the bureau’s Knoxville, Tenn., field office.
As part of his plea, Carter admitted he provided a cooperating witness “with a list of FBI employees that CARTER received from KELLEY” in mid-December 2022 and that Carter instructed the cooperating witness “to memorize the FBI employees identified on the list and then burn the list.”
The motive was “to retaliate against government conduct,” Carter admitted.
According to a court filing, Kelley’s list included the identities of about 37 law enforcement personnel who worked on Kelley’s Jan. 6 case.
Kelley’s jury trial in the murder conspiracy case is set for January.
