US Capitol rioter charged with plotting to kill agents who investigated him – Rip News
A Tennessee man facing charges over assaulting a police officer during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has been charged with plotting to kill the law enforcement agents who investigated his case, the Justice Department said.
Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. Credit:AP
Edward Kelley, 33, of Maryville, Tennessee, and an alleged accomplice, Austin Carter, 26, of Knoxville, Tennessee, were charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, interstate communication of a threat, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The two men are being held without bail after a hearing on Friday in the federal court in Knoxville.
Kelley was arrested in May after allegedly assaulting a police officer during the Capitol insurrection. According to the complaint, Kelley had a list of personal information such as names and phone numbers of 37 law enforcement officers who had investigated his role in the attack.
Kelley recruited Carter and another person at his place of work to help him with the new plot, according to the complaint. The unnamed co-worker decided to co-operate with law enforcement and made secret recordings of a discussion of Kelley’s plans to kill the officials as well as attack the Knoxville office of the FBI.
The co-worker was given an envelope containing the list and a thumb drive of video footage from Kelley’s home security camera that depicted at least one officer approaching Kelley’s home to search it earlier this year, authorities said.
Authorities said the three men met in Jarvis Park in Maryville on December 3 to discuss what Kelley called “assassination missions”, according to the indictment. Kelley urged the witness to “reach out to your cop buddies and see what information you can collect on the individuals on the list”.
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Efforts to reach Kelley’s family members were unsuccessful, and Kelley’s attorney on the January 6 case, Marina Medvin of Alexandria, Virginia, recently withdrew from his case. He is seeking a court-appointed attorney.
On December 13, as the witness and Carter were finishing up a work shift, Carter gave the witness the list and told him to memorise it and then “burn everything in the envelope”, according to the complaint. The witness then took the envelope to authorities and agreed to make “surreptitious recordings” of Kelley and Carter for the FBI, the complaint said.