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Edward Kelley (images via FBI court filing).
A “remorseless” Jan. 6 defendant who was found guilty last year of plotting to kill FBI agents who investigated him after the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack is set to spend the rest of his days behind bars after getting slapped with a life sentence on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan handed down the sentence to defendant Edward Kelley during a hearing in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Justice Department had argued in a sentencing memorandum last month that Kelley deserved the harshest punishment possible after he continued to “believe he was justified in targeting East Tennessee law enforcement for assassination” — and that he was “duty-bound as a self-proclaimed patriot to do so.”
DOJ officials announced in a press release that the judge agreed.
“Kelley, 36, of Maryville … was sentenced to life in prison today in the Eastern District of Tennessee,” the release said.
“According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Kelley developed a plan to murder law enforcement, including agents, officers, and employees of the FBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Maryville Police Department, Blount County Sheriff”s Office, and Clinton Police Department,” DOJ officials recounted. “The evidence showed that Kelley developed a ‘kill list’ of law enforcement and distributed the list — along with videos containing images of his targets — to a co-conspirator as part of his ‘mission.'”
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Kelley was convicted in November 2024 on charges of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence and influencing a federal official by threat following a three-day trial. The government filed its sentencing memorandum on June 17 and recommended a punishment of life in prison, blasting Kelley’s criminal conduct as being “unquestionably serious,” according to the filing.
“The defendant is remorseless,” the DOJ charged.
“From even before the instant offenses of conviction, through his commission of these crimes, up until and after trial, the defendant’s conduct demonstrates a fundamental absence of remorse, a commitment to continuing his criminal behavior once released from prison, disrespect for the rule of law, and a profound need for deterrence,” the government added. “Beyond merely failing to accept responsibility for his own criminal conduct, the Defendant affirmatively believes he is the victim of a crime apparently committed by the FBI, the United States, the trial witnesses, the jury, and this Court. Rather than evince a desire to rehabilitate himself, he appears proud of his crimes.”
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Kelley’s attorney, Mark Brown, claimed in their response that the DOJ was using “unsubstantiated and uncharged allegations” to place Kelley in a “false light.”
Kelley tried claiming earlier this year that his federal murder plot case and conviction in the Volunteer State were “related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” according to court documents. He filed a motion to dismiss his indictment and to vacate his jury convictions on Jan. 27, one week after Trump issued his executive order pardoning anyone prosecuted for the riot. The DOJ urged Varlan to uphold Kelley’s conviction, condemning his claims as “wrong” and Kelley, himself, for having “no authority supporting his position.”
In March, Varlan — a George W. Bush appointee — agreed with the DOJ and rejected Kelley’s court bid to get his murder plot conviction covered by Trump’s pardon, saying “none of the substantive offenses or charging provisions overlap” in the way Kelley has claimed in filings. The DOJ said Kelley was “motivated by a desire to initiate a civil war and to retaliate for his previous arrest,” and was someone who was “committed to executing his plan.”
In his Jan. 6 case, Kelley was found guilty of three felonies — civil disorder, destruction of government property in an amount over $1,000 and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers — for allegedly storming the Capitol building and attacking a police officer. Evidence presented at his trial in Knoxville showed how he compiled a “kill list” of FBI agents and employees who were probing him and his Jan. 6 conduct, which he then distributed to “conspirators,” along with images of them.
“At trial, the United States introduced recordings of the defendant calling for the development of a ‘course of action’ related to his plan,” the DOJ recounted Wednesday. “In one such recording, the defendant gave the instructions to, among other things, ‘start it,’ ‘attack,’ and ‘take out their office’ in the event of his arrest.”
Kelley was recorded stating, “You don’t have time to train or coordinate, but every hit has to hurt,” and “Every hit has to hurt.”
“These crimes are serious and undeniably dangerous,” the government said in its sentencing memo. “He continues to believe he was justified in targeting East Tennessee law enforcement for assassination and was duty-bound as a self-proclaimed patriot to do so.”
