Plea deal may be coming for Leo Kelly, Cedar Rapids man who entered U.S. Capitol in January’s violent raid

CEDAR RAPIDS - Court documents indicate a plea agreement may be reached in the federal case against a Cedar Rapids man charged in January's violent raid on the U.S. Capitol.

A preliminary hearing for Leo Christopher Kelly, 35, has been bumped by a judge to April 8 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., because a prosecutor, in a motion filed last week, said she was working with Kelly's attorney 'in an effort to resolve this matter.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenya Davis, in the motion, said the prosecution also is gathering discovery to provide to the defense. Both sides requested more time and asked that a preliminary hearing be reset to next month.

Some of the more than 300 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack also may be resolved in plea agreements, according to recent media reports. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Fretto said last Friday during a court hearing for two Texas defendants that based on information her supervisors received, the U.S. Justice Department was moving forward with plea agreements, according to CNN.

Kelly is charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry with intent to disrupt the orderly conduct of official business and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Kelly, who works at his family-owned business as a broker of internet services, admitted during interviews with The Gazette and LifeSiteNews in January that he was 'one of the first men to breach the Capitol building and go inside with dozens of others,” which helped lead an FBI investigator to him.

He told The Gazette during the interview that he wasn't a violent person and wasn't part of any destruction or damage of property and items inside the Capitol and personal offices.

Kelly also was identified through video taken of the chaotic assault by the New Yorker magazine.

In the video interview with LifeSiteNews, a conservative news site, Kelly said he stayed inside the Capitol between 30 minutes and an hour, according to an affidavit of the criminal complaint.

Kelly was released after his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids and remains on GPS monitoring - a condition of his release - pending his trial in Washington, D.C. He also was ordered by two federal judges to surrender his passport and stay out of the D.C. area, except for court proceedings and meetings with his attorney.

If convicted, Kelly faces up to one year in federal prison on the first count, or 10 years if it's found he had a weapon. He faces up to six months in prison on the second count.

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