A participant in the Capitol riot on Jan.6, 2021, by supporters of Donald Trump was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for planning to assassinate police officers who investigated him.
Eward Kelley, 36, was found guilty in November by a Tennessee jury (south) on three counts, including planning the murder of federal employees.
He had notably drawn up a "blacklist" of FBI agents, federal police, and other individuals involved in investigating his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the prosecution.
Kelley is among the more than 1,500 Capitol assailants, an unprecedented desecration of the sanctuary of American democracy, to whom Trump granted presidential pardons on Jan. 20, the first day of his new term.
Kelley's lawyers unsuccessfully argued that this pardon also covered the offenses for which he is charged in this case. But prosecutors pointed out that this criminal plan dated from December 2022, nearly two years after the Capitol assault, as well as his lack of remorse.
On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump struck down the largest investigation ever conducted by the Department of Justice, pardoning by decree some 1,250 individuals convicted in this case, commuting the sentences of 14 others, and ordering the halt of prosecutions against a few hundred defendants still awaiting trial.
That day, hundreds of his supporters, inflamed by his baseless claims of election fraud, stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the certification of the victory of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
Rubio condemns Iran's 'outrageous' attacks on Kuwait
