A convicted Jan. 6 rioter has now been found guilty of plotting to murder FBI agents who were investigating the Capitol insurrection.
Edward Kelley, 35, was convicted Wednesday in the federal case against him in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to the Department of Justice.
Kelley made a list of FBI agents who were investigating the Jan. 6 riot who he planned to murder, according to the Department of Justice.
He also planned to attack the FBI office in Knoxville, prosecutors said.
“Federal law enforcement agents put their lives on the line every day to protect the public,” U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III said in a press release after Kelley’s arrest. “Planning and threatening violence against them is among the most serious of crimes. It is absolutely unacceptable and will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.”
In this photo released by the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, Edward Kelley is shown.
Blount County Sheriff’s Office
Earlier this month, Kelley was convicted on multiple counts, including assaulting law enforcement, at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., said Kelley was identified in photos and videos from the insurrection, and was seen in an “altercation” with a United States Capitol Police officer “where he and two other men throw the officer to the ground.”
Kelley was seen in the footage pushing against a metal barricade guarded by police to access the Capitol building. He then used a piece of wood to smash a window, then entered the building through the window, prosecutors said.
While inside the Capitol, Kelley confronted U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, and was also spotted in the Senate Gallery, according to prosecutors.
He is expected to be sentenced in Washington, D.C. federal court on April 7.
