Cedar Rapids man charged in Capitol riot says Trump ‘invited’ supporters to go

A Cedar Rapids man traveled to Washington, D.C. to show his support for former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, because he believed there were “crimes against the Constitution” and the courts wouldn’t review the evidence of election fraud. He was arrested in the weeks following the insurrection. His trial is scheduled to begin May 1.

Background

Leo Christopher Kelly, 37, who described himself as an independent during a Gazette interview after the Capitol insurrection, said he was caught up in the moment when protesters violently invaded the Capitol in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election. He just followed the mob into the Senate chamber, he said.

“It was just a crazy time,” Kelly said. He felt overwhelmed by what happened.

Kelly, during the interview, said he went to the “Save America Rally” and listened to Trump’s remarks, but he didn’t believe Trump was responsible for the violence at the Capitol because he told supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Trump also told supporters "We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," according to news reports.

Kelly said when he arrived at the Capitol, people were walking up steps and climbing on scaffolding. He wanted to see what was happening and kept moving forward with the crowd. It felt like a historical moment he wanted to witness, he noted.

Kelly, who worked at his family-owned business as a broker of internet services, said he had no malicious intent. He didn't feel like part of a coup attempt.

“I wasn't armed,” he said in the 2021 interview. “I didn't intend to destroy anything and I didn't destroy anything.”

He estimates he was in the Senate chamber for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. The scene was “just absolute chaos.” He said he joined others in prayer.

Kelly, who said God would judge his actions, believes in the rule of law and said in 2021 that he understood that the law could come for him.

“I understand there could be consequences for what happened and I will accept those and deal with them,” he added.

What’s happened since

Kelly’s admission in The Gazette interview and with LifeSiteNews, a nonprofit conservative website, that he was one of the first people, along with dozens of others, to enter the Capitol, helped lead an FBI investigator to him, according to court documents. Kelly also was identified through a video by The New Yorker magazine.

The insurrection resulted in the U.S. House of Representatives impeaching Trump, an investigation by the Jan. 6 Committee, and at least 1,000 people have been arrested on charges related to the riot, according to the Department of Justice earlier this month.

About half of those charged pleaded guilty to federal crimes. One-third of those were charged with assault, resisting or impeding police during the incident, the DOJ said.

Kelly was initially charged in January 2021 with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and violent entry with intent to disrupt the orderly conduct of official business and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

At two different times, a plea agreement seemed like it might be reached but then nearly a year later, Kelly was indicted on additional charges.

In December 2021, Kelly was indicted on seven charges and pleaded not guilty to one count each of:

Kelly’s trial has been reset a few times and is now set for May 1 in U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.

He has filed motions to move his trial out of Washington, D.C. because it’s the location where the incident happened, and he also wants to suppress his statements made to law enforcement during an interview. They were not voluntary and the Miranda waiver was improperly taken, according to Kelly’s motions.

He also has filed motions to suppress any evidence found on his phone, arguing the officers falsely claimed he didn’t have the right to refuse consent, the motion stated.

Those motions and others haven’t been ruled on by a judge at this time.

Kelly, according to a joint pretrial statement filed by the prosecution and defense in January, maintains he didn’t intend to go into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, until he was “invited in” by Trump. He also maintains that he didn’t intend to disrupt or obstruct the vote that day.

“Mr. Kelly believed at the time he entered the Capitol that the doors were opened by police officers with authority to let him in,” Kira West, Kelly’s Washington lawyer, said in the joint statement. “Mr. Kelly maintains that he acted in a respectful manner at all times while in and around the Capitol.”

Kelly plans to testify at trial, according to a witness list filed by the defense. His mother and father also will testify. Other witnesses include Capitol police officers, FBI agents and other law enforcement, and a LifeSiteNews reporter.

Witnesses for the prosecution include Capitol police officers, FBI agents, U.S. Secret Service agents and a deputy U.S. Marshal of the Northern District of Iowa.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com