WASHINGTON, D.C. — A criminal complaint was unsealed this week charging Edward Kelley, 33, of Maryville, Tennessee, and Austin Carter, 26, of Knoxville, Tennessee, with conspiracy, retaliating against a federal official, interstate communication of a threat, and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.
According to court documents, Kelley, who is facing charges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia related to his assault on a law enforcement officer during the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, obtained a list of law enforcement personnel who participated in that criminal investigation. In conversations with a cooperating witness, Kelley and Carter discussed collecting information and plans to kill the individual law enforcement personnel on the list, including an attack on the FBI’s Knoxville Field Office.
Both defendants appeared in federal court Friday in Knoxville before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jill E. McCook. Both defendants have been detained, with Carter scheduled for a detention hearing on Dec. 21.
The investigation is being handled by the FBI, with the announcement made by Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Francis M. (Trey) Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Assistant Director Robert R. Wells of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.