The Virginia Democrat mired in scandal over text messages — in which he called for the assassination of a political opponent — once called for a police lieutenant to lose his job over a $25 donation to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund.
Jay Jones, currently a candidate for state attorney general in Virginia, has not responded to calls for him to drop out of the race over 2022 texts advocating political violence against then-state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. But in 2021, claiming to be in pursuit of “true accountability in policing,” Jones demanded that Norfolk Police Lt. William K. Kelly III lose his job after he donated $25 to the legal defense fund for Kyle Rittenhouse — the teenager who fatally shot two protesters and injured another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a 2020 riot. A jury determined that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.
In 2021, Jay Jones called for a Norfolk police lieutenant to be fired after donating $25 to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund — calling it “utterly disgusting” and demanding “true accountability in policing.”
Now Jay Jones himself is the one who fantasized about political… pic.twitter.com/ayIe4IONPD
— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) October 5, 2025
At the time, The Guardian reported on the sources of some of the donations for Rittenhouse’s defense, identifying Kelly as one of the donors.
“God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong,” the message with the donation read. “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”
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Jones, at the time a Norfolk delegate, argued that such a donation was reason enough for Kelly to lose his job.
“We have to get to the bottom of this reported conduct, which is utterly disgusting. If these allegations are true, Officer Kelly must resign from the Norfolk Police Department immediately,” Jones declared. “Should he not resign, he must be terminated. Kelly’s actions have broken the public’s trust and emboldened the worst elements in our society. If we are ever going to repair and strengthen the already fragile relationship between our communities and law enforcement and have a public that truly feels safe, we must root out bias and hatred in our justice system and have true accountability in policing.”
For the sake of comparison, here are some of the text messages Jones sent about former House Speaker Gilbert in 2022: “Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head. Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
Earlier in the text messages, Jones expressed that he would attend the funerals of Republican lawmakers in Virginia “to piss on their graves.”
“Send them out awash in something,” he added.
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