People protesting against election fraud gather in front of Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Jan. 6.
U.S. media confirmed Friday (March 5) that a former State Department aide was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Jan. 4 on multiple felony counts of assaulting a police officer for his involvement in the Capitol violence on Jan. 6.
Klein (Federico Klein) has become the first Trump administration official to be publicly arrested and criminally prosecuted by the prosecution for the violence in Congress.
“The FBI detained Klein, 42, a former State Department aide, in Virginia on Thursday, FBI Washington field office spokeswoman Samantha Shero told Politico, which first reported the news on Thursday.
Citing a just-released indictment, several U.S. media outlets said Friday that Klein will appear in court later Friday on charges of assault on a police officer, including use of a dangerous weapon, obstruction of Congress and law enforcement, and other charges.
Klein worked in the State Department’s Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs and held a top-secret security clearance.
The indictment says that during the Jan. 6 violence at Congress, Klein was caught on surveillance cameras, as well as cameras worn by police officers, trying to get up close and personal with officers manning a perimeter.
At about 3 p.m. Jan. 6, when protesters tried to break through a set of Capitol gates and a Washington, D.C., police officer told Klein and others to back off, Klein “violently thrust a riot shield, apparently taken from a (police) officer,” at the officers trying to stop them. According to court documents, Klein “wedged the riot shield between the doors of the Capitol to prevent officers from closing the doors.
Minutes later, at approximately 3:15 p.m., on the west terrace of the Capitol, Klein allegedly violently rammed a police officer with a police shield and tried to break through the police line.
A police officer was dragged into the crowd after officers pushed protesters out of a tunnel entrance to the Capitol. As his colleagues tried to retrieve the officer, one officer shouted to the protesting crowd, “Get out of the way, get out of the way!” Klein responded, “No way.”
Klein was still serving at the State Department as of Jan. 6 and resigned Jan. 19 before Biden‘s inauguration, according to the indictment signed Tuesday and released Thursday.
The indictment says a colleague of Klein’s identified him from a photo of the suspect released by the FBI, while a cell phone linked to Klein was also found near the Capitol.
Klein’s mother, Cecilia Klein, confirmed to the media Thursday night that Klein was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and said she and Klein had discussed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot weeks ago, but she was unsure whether her son entered the Capitol.
Cecilia, a former trade official, is now retired. She and her son rarely talk politics or discuss Trump because they each have different views.
Cecilia said Klein is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. According to Klein’s LinkedIn page, he graduated from George Mason University in 2002 and went on to serve as a fellow on the conservative Family Research Council and as a delegate to the Virginia Republican State Convention.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Klein joined the Trump campaign as a “technical analyst” in 2016.
Since 2017, Klein has been employed by the State Department as a special assistant in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and has been classified as a Class C political appointee.
As of Thursday, more than 300 indictments had been filed in federal court in connection with the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.
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