A military veteran who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was pardoned by President Donald Trump, has now been sentenced to life in prison—this time, for plotting to assassinate dozens of federal agents.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan handed down the sentence to Edward Kelley, a former Marine from Maryville, Tennessee, after a jury convicted him of conspiring to murder federal employees, soliciting a violent crime, and attempting to influence federal officials through threats.
Kelley—one of the first rioters to breach the Capitol—was caught on video helping throw a police officer to the ground and using a piece of wood to smash a window. He was the fourth person to enter the building through that shattered glass, according to the FBI.
But it was what came after Jan. 6 that sealed his fate.
Nearly two years later, Kelley teamed up with another man to plot a violent attack on the FBI’s Knoxville, Tennessee, field office. Prosecutors said the plan involved using car bombs and drones rigged with explosive devices. While awaiting trial for his role in the Capitol attack, Kelley also compiled a “kill list” of 36 law enforcement officers—many of them connected to his 2022 arrest—whom he intended to assassinate.
During Wednesday’s hearing, more than a dozen of those targets sat in the courtroom as Kelley received his sentence. Judge Varlan also denied Kelley’s request for release pending appeal.
“The proof at trial established that Kelley targeted law enforcement because of their anticipated role in the civil war that Kelley hoped to initiate and because of his animus,” prosecutors wrote. They described Kelley as a “self-styled ‘patriot’” who felt justified in targeting federal agents, motivated by vengeance and extreme ideology.
Kelley used encrypted messaging apps to coordinate with coconspirators, including Austin Carter, who is scheduled for sentencing next month. Carter testified that he and Kelley conducted military-style training in late 2022.
Despite Trump’s sweeping Day One clemency order for more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, the judge ruled that Kelley’s plot—which centered on an assassination plan in Tennessee—was unrelated and therefore not covered.
“The offenses for which the defendant was found guilty by an East Tennessee jury are the products of the defendant’s independent volitional acts,” prosecutors wrote in a February court filing. “They are not related to events at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Kelley, who served eight years in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, is now one of the few Jan. 6 rioters still behind bars following Trump’s blanket pardons. He’s hardly the only one who reoffended.
Related | Ex-FBI agent accused of urging to kill cops on Jan. 6 joins Trump’s DOJ
In stark contrast, another Jan. 6 participant—former FBI agent Jared L. Wise, who was reportedly recorded yelling “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” as rioters attacked police—isn’t in prison. He now works inside Trump’s Department of Justice, advising the so-called “Weaponization Working Group” alongside pardon attorney Ed Martin.
Kelley’s case underscores just how far some rioters were willing to go—and how wildly their fates have diverged.