Trump fan charged with plotting to murder FBI agents had a gun on Jan. 6, DOJ says [View all]

Source: NBC News

Oct. 29, 2024, 6:15 PM EDT


WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who, federal authorities say, plotted to kill FBI special agents investigating him on Jan. 6 charges appears to have been armed with a gun when he became the fourth rioter to breach the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors said at trial Tuesday.

Edward Kelley, of Tennessee, is one of just a handful of Jan. 6 suspects who are still being held in pretrial custody, meaning they haven't yet been convicted of crimes. Kelley was originally freed pending trial on his Jan. 6 charges but was then re-arrested over allegations of a murder plot in December 2022.

He and co-defendant Austin Carter plotted “to murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation" in December 2022, months after Kelley's arrest on Jan. 6 charges, Carter admitted in a plea agreement. Kelley is set to go to trial in that case in a federal court in Tennessee on Nov. 18, with a pretrial conference scheduled next week, on Nov. 7.

This week, Kelley was in federal court in Washington, facing an array of charges in connection with his original conduct on Jan. 6, 2021: civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; destruction of government property; and a variety of misdemeanors. His defense team didn’t put forth any witnesses during his trial, and Kelley declined to testify. Kelley, an anti-abortion-rights activist, wore a sweatshirt reading TCAPP, standing for "The Church At Planned Parenthood," when he stormed the Capitol, according to the FBI.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-fan-charged-plotting-murder-fbi-agents-gun-jan-6-doj-says-rcna177696