MAGA rioter says plot to murder FBI agents covered by Trump pardon

Capitol rioter Edward Kelley wasn't only convicted of assaulting police officers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 — he was also convicted of plotting to murder the FBI agents who had investigated his role in the riots.

Now the Wall Street Journal reports that Kelley is arguing that the pardon he received from President Donald Trump should apply not just to his actions at the Capitol riots but to the post-riot murder plot that a jury found him guilty of last year.

According to the Journal, Kelley's attorneys have latched onto language in the pardon that absolves their client of "offenses related to events that occurred at or near" the Capitol on January 6 to argue that it also applies to the "kill list" he created of FBI agents.

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What's more, the Journal reports that Kelley isn't alone in his efforts to use Trump's pardon to get other charges against them dropped.

"In Florida, resident Daniel Ball is charged with illegally possessing a gun and ammunition because of prior felony convictions, including for domestic-violence battery by strangulation, court records show," reports the Journal. "His lawyer, Amy Collins, wants prosecutors to drop the case, saying it stems from a search that occurred when Ball was arrested for alleged Jan. 6 crimes that were pending when Trump pardoned him."

Additionally, the paper has found that "a lawyer for David Daniel, a North Carolina man facing child-pornography charges, made a similar argument" given that nearly all of the evidence used by prosecutors "came from a raid on Daniel’s house in connection with the Jan. 6 case."