(LifeSiteNews) — Leo Kelly is praising Donald Trump for telling MSNBC’s Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that he will most likely issue pardons for January 6 prisoners.
“I am glad to hear about the pardons and eagerly anticipate receiving mine,” Kelly told LifeSite via email today.
Kelly, 39, is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail for what was deemed to be a felony along with six misdemeanors for obstructing a governmental proceeding on January 6, 2021. He began serving his sentence in October 2023.
Trump told Welker this past weekend that the hundreds of people who have been put in jail due to their participation in the January 6 protests are victims of a “very nasty system.”
“I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump said. “They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
President Trump says he will be “acting very quickly” on pardons for some J6 defendants: “We’re going to look at individual cases … They’ve been in there for years!” pic.twitter.com/XeLbemtYXO
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) December 8, 2024
This past June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the felony charges for many January 6 prisoners are to be dismissed, with Kelly being among them. In September, his dad Chris and several family members called the Minnesota-based prison where he was being detained. Shockingly, they learned that he was being released just three hours later.
The Associated Press picked up Leo’s story after his release and misleadingly claimed that he was “mistakenly released.” But Kelly’s father previously explain to LifeSite that there was nothing mistaken about his son’s release because “the felony is gone”
While speaking with LifeSite in November, Leo said that he “hopes” Trump will issue pardons but that he and others he did what they did because they love America and that the sacrifice was worth it.
“The law was used as weapon against us. Our government is corrupt and lawless right now. America needs to repent, humble itself, and turn from our wicked ways so God will heal our land,” he said.
Trump also told Welker that there “may be some exceptions” to his pardons “if somebody was radical, crazy” but that the real people who belong in jail are members of the January 6 House Select Committee, which included former Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“Those people committed a major crime,” Trump said of their withholding and destroying evidence.
Kelly, however, urged Trump to not pursue a case against them.
“The important thing for Trump to keep on focus when prosecuting the bad actors is the objective of establishing peace and liberty in America,” he told LifeSite. “Revenge-based motives may satiate some peoples’ appetites, but they will not help us in the long run.”
More than 1,200 Americans have been charged with breaking the law in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. Over 600 persons have been convicted and are serving prison terms of up to 22 years.