Pardoned J6 Rioter Gets Life Sentence

UPDATE Jul 2, 2025 6:04 PM CDT

Edward Kelley was pardoned by President Trump for his role in the Capitol riot—but a judge has determined that the pardon doesn't extend to a plot to kill the FBI agents who investigated him. The 36-year-old military veteran has been sentenced to life in prison over a plot to attack the FBI office in Knoxville, Tennessee, with explosive devices attached to vehicles and drones, the AP reports. US District Judge Thomas Varlan agreed with prosecutors that Trump's pardon wasn't broad enough to cover the plot, saying it was separated from the Capitol attack by "years and miles." Prosecutors said Kelley, one of the first rioters to enter the Capitol, had a "kill list" of more than 30 people. WBIR reports that he did not express remorse or regret during the sentencing hearing in Knoxville on Wednesday.

Nov 21, 2024 10:45 AM CST

Two weeks after he was convicted of charges for his role as one of the first people to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Edward Kelley has been convicted of plotting to kill those who investigated him. The Tennessee man was found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation of violent crime, and threatening a federal official, per CNN. In December 2022, as Kelley awaited trial in the Jan. 6 case, he formed a group dedicated to armed conflict with the government and wrote up a "kill list" of the names of 37 people involved in the investigation of him, including the two FBI agents leading the inquiry, prosecutors said.

Christopher Roddy, a co-conspirator who handed the kill list to authorities, testified during a three-day trial, saying Kelley asked him to collect information on the targets. He also recorded Kelley asking him to attack the FBI office in Knoxville. In the phone call, Kelley allegedly instructed Roddy and another co-conspirator to launch an attack "if I'm extradited to DC or you don't hear about my status within 24 or 48 hours," per CNN. "Every hit has to hurt," Kelley added, per the New York Times. He faces up to life in prison at his May 7 sentencing, which will come exactly a month after his sentencing in the Jan. 6 case.

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In that case, Kelley was convicted of three felonies—civil disorder, destruction of government property, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers—and eight misdemeanors in a bench trial. Prosecutors said he was wearing a gas mask and tactical helmet when he became the fourth rioter to breach the Capitol building, per the Times and NBC News. He threw an officer to the ground and used a piece of wood to smash a window, gaining access to the building, before kicking open a door, allowing other rioters to stream inside, prosecutors said. The reported anti-abortion activist spent 40 minutes inside the building and was charged in May 2022.