Two Tennessee Jan. 6 rioters plotting to kill 37 FBI agents arrested
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Numerous recordings show Kelley considering hiring people to attack the FBI’s office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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One of the arrested, Edward Kelley (NBC News)
Two Tennessee men were detained on Friday, on the basis of allegedly plotting to assassinate FBI agents investigating them for former President Donald Trump's Capitol riots.
Edward Kelley was charged with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence while simultaneously being subject to charges of assaulting an officer during the January 6 riots at the Capitol. Austin Carter was arrested and charged with partaking in the plot.
According to the New York Times, the pair planned to take out a list of 37 agents, but an anonymous individual alerted the authorities after obtaining the list from Carter alongside a USB from Kelley’s home holding video of officers approaching his residence on the day of his arrest.
Read next: Oath keepers’ Rhodes guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack
"Racked, locked up, and loaded"
Numerous recordings of Kelley and Carter discussing their plans were also submitted by the individual, which included one in which Kelley asked the individual to “stash some stuff," which later turned out to be weapons and ammunition. In a shocking turn of events, Kelley also told him that he was considering hiring people to attack the FBI’s office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Carter, on the other hand, confessed to the source that he was thinking of joining in on Kelley's plans so he asked him “to definitely make sure you got everything racked, locked up and loaded."
Arrested and sentenced
A QAnon supporter and self-acclaimed "poster boy" of the Capitol attack was also arrested on Friday and was given a prison sentence of five years.
More notably, in September, Trump supporter Douglas Jensen was sentenced to 60 months in prison for leading rioters into the Capitol building and directing them toward police officer Eugene Goodman.
Jensen was among the first 10 people to invade the facility, and per the prosecutors' allegations, he climbed a wall at the Capitol and observed mob members barge into the Senate wing entrance’s windows and doors.
Jensen's attorney described his client as “a terribly confused man” whose mindset was triggered by the QAnon and Covid lockdowns and asserted that Jensen did not physically harm anyone. However, it took the jury just four hours to convict Jensen as charged with five felonies: assaulting police, obstructing a congressional proceeding, interfering with law enforcement, entering a restricted building, and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon.
Latest legal updates
964 people have been arrested so far for being involved in the riots and charged with crimes including, but not limited to, assaulting an officer, destructing government property, and theft.
Around half, or 465, of the arrested have pled guilty and as of now, the longest prison sentence has been handed to former NYPD officer Thomas Webster - 10 years in prison. He was indicted in September after assaulting an officer with a metal flagpole as the officer attempted to block the rioters from entering.
In the latest legal updates, Trump may be the first President in US history to undergo criminal referrals, on the basis of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiring to defraud the US. The recommendations from a special subcommittee stem from a series of examining collected evidence proving Trump's attempts to block the certification of the 2020 election results.
This comes as next Monday will witness even higher tensions when the panel is due to publicly vote to conclude its report and formally decide on the referrals, thus exerting more pressure on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to press charges.
