In Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan ruled that President Donald Trump’s broad pardon of participants in the Capitol riot does not cover the separate crimes of Edward Kelley. Kelley, convicted on charges related to the riot, was among over 1,500 individuals pardoned by Trump. However, Kelley faced additional charges for plotting to murder law enforcement officers involved in his investigation in a separate case. He was found guilty by a federal jury in Tennessee and is awaiting sentencing on May 7.
Judge Varlan clarified that Trump’s pardon did not apply to Kelley’s convictions for conspiracy to murder federal employees, solicitation to commit a violent crime, and threatening a federal official. The judge emphasized that Kelley’s actions in the murder plot were distinct from his involvement in the Capitol riot and could not reasonably fall under the scope of the pardon.
The Justice Department’s stance on the extent of Trump’s Jan. 6 pardon has been inconsistent in cases involving additional crimes discovered during investigations. While arguing that the pardon should cover other offenses, the Department maintained that Kelley’s murder plot was not pardoned by Trump. This decision was supported by the judge’s ruling, which highlighted the significant temporal and spatial separation between Kelley’s actions in the murder plot and the events of January 6, 2021.
In a related case concerning firearms found during a search of another Capitol riot defendant’s home, a federal judge raised questions about the interpretation of Trump’s pardon. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich expressed the view that pardons must have a clear and fixed meaning, and Trump’s intent at the time of issuing the pardons should not evolve based on new developments. The judge has yet to make a decision in that case but emphasized the importance of interpreting pardons consistently to uphold their integrity.
Friedrich stated, “It cannot simply be a case of ‘we know it when we see it.'”
