Trump Official Arrested in Storming of Capitol Left Little Mark Before Riot
Federico Klein was an outspoken religious conservative with a “perfectly suburban” background before the F.B.I. arrested him for assaulting Capitol Police.
Federico G. Klein was included in a poster seeking information on several people seen in the crowd that stormed the Capitol.Credit.FBI
March 5, 2021
WASHINGTON Soon after President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the White House told State Department officials that they needed to find a job for a political appointee.
Federico G. Klein had been a low-level aide on Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and a stalwart supporter of the president, outspoken on his religious and conservative views. When a senior State Department official tried to object, believing Mr. Klein to be out of his depth in the world of diplomacy, he was overruled, according to a former department official. Mr. Klein was stashed in obscure positions with little influe
Trump-appointed State Department official arrested for attacking police in siege of US Capitol
Federico Klein breaching the Capitol with a police riot shield [Source: FBI]
In an appearance before US Magistrate Zia Faruqui on Friday, Klein did not enter a plea. He was ordered to remain in detention until another hearing, scheduled for next Wednesday.
In addition to assaulting police, Klein is charged with unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct and obstructing Congress and law enforcement, offenses that carry a maximum twenty-year prison sentence.
An affidavit submitted by the FBI includes public video, body camera pictures from the police and security footage from the Capitol. Klein can be seen wearing a tan jacket and a red “Make America Great Again” hat, and using a police riot shield to wedge open doors and push back against police trying to keep the mob out of the Capitol.
Klein s arrest is the most direct link yet between the Trump administration and the rioters.
The FBI said Thursday (local time) that it arrested a political appointee of President Donald Trump on charges that he stormed the US Capitol on January 6 and assaulted an officer with a weapon, marking the first arrest of a Trump administration official in connection with the insurrection. Federico Guillermo Klein, a former State Department official, made an initial appearance by teleconference on Friday before US Magistrate Zia Faruqui in Washington, where prosecutors said they would seek to jail him pending trial at a hearing next Wednesday.