A federal judge in Tennessee sided with the U.S. Justice Department in refusing to drop the conviction of a Jan. 6, 2021, rioter found guilty of plotting to kill the FBI agents who investigated him — saying he took “independent, volitional action” that President Trump’s pardons for the attack do not cover, reports Law and Crime. Edward Kelley, 35, of Maryville, argued that his federal murder plot case and conviction in Tennessee last year was “related to events" at the Capitol On Jan. 6. He filed a motion to dismiss his indictment and to vacate his jury convictions on Jan. 27, one week after Trump issued his executive order. DOJ urged U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan to maintain Kelley’s conviction, condemning his claims as “wrong” and Kelley, himself, for having “no authority supporting his position.”
On Monday, Varlan agreed and ruled in favor of rejecting Kelley’s court bid to get his murder plot conviction covered by Trump’s pardon, saying “none of the substantive offenses or charging provisions overlap” in the way Kelley has claimed in filings. Varlan said, “Trial evidence established that defendant took independent, volitional action to prepare for a violent attack against federal officials in Knoxville — actions that are causally attenuated from the events of Jan 6." Kelley was convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a crime of violence and influencing a federal official by threat. In his Jan. 6 case, Kelley was found guilty of three felonies — including civil disorder, destruction of government property in an amount over $1,000 and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers — for storming the Capitol building and attacking a police officer. Evidence presented at a separate trial in Knoxville, Tennessee, showed how he “developed a plan to murder law enforcement” while his Jan. 6 charges were pending.