A Trump State Department appointee was arrested Thursday for involvement in the Capitol riot on January 6 after he was identified from photos and police bodycam footage.
Federico Klein, 42, was charged with assaulting a police officer, interfering with police during civil disorder, and obstruction of Congress and law enforcement in connection with the riot.
“We need fresh people, we need fresh people,” Klein says in the body cam video as he tried to break down the Capitol doors with a riot shield.
Two tipsters identified Klein from FBI photos and called the FBI to report that he was the one in the photos.
Klein employed in Trump administration
Klein worked at the Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs at the State Department at the time of the riot. He resigned on January 21.
He is the only Trump political appointee to be arrested for participation in the riot so far.
Klein appeared in court on Friday and complained that there were cockroaches in the cell where he had been kept overnight. U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said the conditions would be addressed and that Klein would likely be moved later on Friday.
No plea so far
Klein did not enter any plea on the charges on Friday, which the judge said could get him up to 20 years in prison.
He said he had not been able to hire a lawyer from his cell. “It’s really impossible to do anything from my cell at this point,” he said.
Prosecutors asked that Klein be held in custody pending trial, but Faruqui apparently had other ideas. After all, Klein is not being charged with murder and does not have a pattern of dangerous behavior.
The judge set a bail hearing for Tuesday. “I don’t want you to just be on hold, in purgatory, while you sort out your counsel,” she said.
So far, 275 of the 540 individuals suspected of being part of the Capitol riot on January 6th have been arrested for their involvement. The FBI said in January that they had received 140,000 photos and videos from the public about the riot and were considering filing charges of seditious conspiracy against some who were involved.
The post Trump State Department appointee arrested for participating in Capitol riot first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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