FBI arrests Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on Jan. 6 misdemeanor charges
Photo: Ryan Kelley (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP)
Originally published as a Fox News post –
“The FBI arrested Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley Thursday.
FBI agents executed search and arrest warrants at his home in Allendale, near Grand Rapids, and took Kelley into custody, a spokeswoman for FBI Detroit, initially confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Kelley, 40, of Allendale, Michigan, was arrested Thursday morning on misdemeanor charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, FBI Detroit spokeswoman Mara R. Schneider said in an update.
He was arrested in Allendale and is to make his initial appearance Thursday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Because this is a pending case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has no further comment at this time, Schneider added.
Kelley is charged 17 months after the Jan. 6 riot and on the same day the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is to hold a primetime hearing Thursday to present never-seen video, new audio and a mass of evidence following a year-long investigation by the select panel.
The criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital charged Kelley with: knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against person or property in any restricted building or grounds; willfully injure or commit any depredation against any property of the United States. All are misdemeanor offenses.
A copy of the affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital says the FBI received multiple tips regarding Kelley’s presence at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
It included multiple photos and videos of a man believed to be Kelley wearing a black coat, aviator sunglasses and backwards black baseball cap among a group of people gathered near the entrance to the Northwestern scaffolding on the Western side of the U.S. Capitol.
The affidavit says Kelley uses his phone to film the crowd assaulting and pushing past U.S. Capitol police officers and rushing up through the scaffolding and up the steps to the Capitol. The man believed to be Kelley is seen on top of the scaffolding waving for the crowd to head toward the building.
He eventually reached the U.S. Capitol’s North West Courtyard, but it’s unclear from the affidavit if he entered the interior of the building. The affidavit notes that Kelley wore similar attire at a November 2020 rally at the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan, where he delivered a speech.
“Covid-19 was made so that they can use the propaganda to control your minds so that you think, if you watch the media, that Joe Biden won this election. We’re not going to buy it,” he said, according to the affidavit. “We’re going to stand and fight for America, for Donald Trump. We’re not going to let the Democrats steal this election.”
The owner of a real estate firm and co-founder of the American Patriot Council, Kelley led large rallies at the state capitol in Lansing and Grand Rapids protesting the statewide COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates enforced by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, according to his campaign website.
His campaign bio also noted that Kelley, exercising his Second Amendment rights, “guarded a Civil War Statue in his hometown of Allendale as it was threatened to be taken down by BLM and Antifa” during 2020 riots after George Floyd’s killing.”
