Trump Jan. 6 Pardonee Gets Life Sentence After Trying to Take Revenge

A federal judge sentenced a January 6 rioter to life in prison Wednesday for plotting to assassinate the federal agents who’d investigated him.  

U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan ordered 36-year-old Edward Kelley to spend the rest of his life behind bars, after Kelley was convicted on the charges of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, and influencing a federal official by threat.

Kelley received his sentencing in front of more than a dozen of the targets on his “kill list,” which had specifically taken aim at individuals working at the FBI’s headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee. Prosecutors said that Kelley had created the list while awaiting trial in his insurrection case, and that he had attempted to recruit others to help him target the office with car bombs and drones, or attack individuals at their homes or public places. 

Kelley was previously convicted in November 2024 of multiple felonies and misdemeanors related to his participation in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, where he pushed a police officer to the ground before being one of the first rioters to break into the building. 

He was one of the more than 1,500 recipients of Donald Trump’s sweeping Inauguration Day pardon for violently opposing his loss in the 2020 presidential election. 

Not every January 6 rioter is getting the same shake. Former FBI agent and January 6 rioter Jared L. Wise—who shouted “Kill ’em! Kill ’em! Kill ’em!” while the mob attacked law enforcement at the Capitol—will now work alongside Attorney General Ed Martin on the Department of Justice’s “weaponization” working group.