The FBI said on Thursday that it arrested a former State Department aide on charges related to the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill, including illegal entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstruction of Congress and the police and assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon.
Former mid-level adviser Federico G. Klein, who federal investigators said in court documents was seen in videos of police officers resisting the riot and assaulting them with a stolen shock shield, is the first member of the Trump administration to face charges criminals in connection with the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump crowd.
He worked on Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and started working at the State Department just days after Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, according to a financial disclosure form he filled out as an executive officer.
Klein’s arrest was previously reported by the Politico.
The FBI said in a court document that it received a tip about Klein in January, the day after including his image on a poster seeking information about several people seen in the crowd that broke into the Capitol. One informant provided investigators with Mr. Klein’s Facebook account, and another witness later contacted them to say that he knew the man on the poster as “Freddie Klein,” according to the document.
Based on this information, the FBI determined that when Mr. Klein allegedly attacked Congress on January 6 to help Mr. Trump illegally retain power, he was still an employee of the State Department and had a Top Secret security clearance. , said the agency in the document.
Klein can be seen in video footage and other images wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, pants and a dress shirt while trying to pass a line of Metropolitan Police officers in a tunnel near the west terrace, according to the document. “Klein quickly made his way to the left side of the front of the crowd and to the door of the Capitol building, where he became physically and verbally involved with the officers who held the line,” said the FBI.
He was part of a crowd that tried to push the doors despite a policeman’s warnings to back off, the FBI said, and used a “riot shield that was apparently taken from a police officer” to prevent the doors from closing.
Klein was seen in other videos “calling back to the crowd behind him: ‘We need new people, we need new people’ over and over again,” said the FBI.
The Justice Department’s aggressive and extensive investigation into the Capitol attack has led to criminal charges against more than 300 people, including dozens of far-right extremists accused of plotting to attack Congress to prevent Joseph R’s final certification. Victory of the Biden Jr. Electoral College
Many defendants said they acted at the behest of Trump, who had falsely claimed to have won the November election.
In the past few weeks, the investigation has approached Trump. Last month, investigators began examining communications from some right-wing extremists who violated the Capitol to determine whether Roger J. Stone Jr., a close associate of the former president, played any role in his plans to attack Congress. Mr. Stone denied any wrongdoing.