WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 defendant who plotted to murder FBI special agents who investigated him over his actions at the Capitol was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.
Edward Kelley was convicted in November of conspiracy to murder employees of the United States; solicitation to commit a crime of violence; and influencing or retaliating against federal officials by threat. President Donald Trump pardoned Kelley, alongside roughly 1,500 other Jan. 6 defendants, in January.
U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan imposed the sentence on Wednesday during a hearing in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Kelley’s team argued that Trump’s pardon should apply to his conduct in the murder plot. While the Justice Department had argued that the pardons should apply to separate gun cases against other Jan. 6 defendants, they said the pardon did not apply to Kelley’s conduct. A federal judge ruled that Trump’s pardon did not apply to the murder plot.
Federal prosecutors sought life in prison for Kelley, calling him “remorseless” and writing that he 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,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
Kelley, prosecutors wrote, “committed crimes that are serious, violent, and all designed to achieve the same end: the murder of federal, state, and local law enforcement.”
Kelley “formed a self-styled militia to attack the FBI,” and “conducted combat drills to realize his plan,” they wrote. He “strategized ways to bomb the FBI Knoxville office” and “identified a ‘hornet’s nest’ at which to store his various weapons at ‘arms’ reach.'” Kelley also “devised a kill list of individual agents to be targeted” and then “gave the go-ahead command — ‘start it’ — to his confederates, noting that ‘every hit has to hurt.'”
Kelley’s lawyer wrote that “no individual was directly threatened with harm or violence by Kelley, and no one was injured” and that “Kelley does not deserve the same sentence as an actual ‘terrorist’ who injured or killed hundreds or thousands” of Americans.
Austin Carter, who admitted that he conspired with Kelley in the murder plot and pleaded guilty, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
