J6 defendant who plotted to kill FBI agents should not be released by presidential pardon, DOJ says

A former Jan. 6 defendant found guilty of plotting to murder dozens of law enforcement officers in Tennessee should not be released from prison under President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 pardon declaration, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a new court filing.

Edward R. Kelley, 36, of Maryville, Tenn., had his Jan. 6 case dismissed Jan. 22 by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on a motion from the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.

'Dismissal of this case is not warranted.'

Kelley is asking a Tennessee federal judge to vacate the jury verdicts in his other case, in which he was charged with conspiring to kill various federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. The DOJ opposes the move, saying the conspiracy case is unrelated to Jan. 6.

“This case is about the defendant’s entirely independent criminal conduct in Tennessee, in late 2022, more than 500 miles away from the Capitol,” the DOJ wrote in a Feb. 18 filing, “threatening, soliciting, and conspiring to murder 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.”

Kelley’s conduct in the Tennessee case was “unrelated in both time and place” to the protests and violence at the U.S. Capitol, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey Arrowood and Kyle Wilson wrote in a filing before U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

“The crimes for which an East Tennessee jury convicted the defendant did not occur at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Arrowood and Wilson wrote. “They occurred entirely within the Eastern District of Tennessee nearly two years later. By the plain language of the proclamation, dismissal of this case is not warranted.”

'He intended his executive order to sweep broadly.'

On Nov. 20, 2024, a jury found Kelley guilty of conspiracy to murder employees of the United States, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat. He faces possible life in prison at his scheduled May sentencing hearing.

In his motion to vacate the verdicts and dismiss the case with prejudice, Kelley said the Tennessee case “directly relates” to Jan. 6 events at the Capitol. Attorney Mark E. Brown wrote that the same FBI agent led the investigation in both of Kelley’s cases.

“It is clear from the President’s executive action that he intended his executive order to sweep broadly,” Brown wrote. “If he had wanted it to apply to just the actions of January 6th he would have said so. Rather he styled his executive action as ‘related to’ events that occurred at or near the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“Thus, Kelley is entitled to the immediate dismissal of the indictment in this court and immediate release from custody,” Brown wrote.

The DOJ summed up its opposition by saying, “The defendant is wrong.”

Kelley is one of a handful of former Jan. 6 defendants who remain behind bars despite President Trump's Jan. 20 declaration on pardons and sentence commutations.

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