A judge ruled that a State Department official appointed by Trump will remain in prison after being arrested last week for his alleged involvement in the January 6 deadly riot on Capitol Hill.
Federico Klein was arrested by the FBI last Thursday in connection with the Capitol riot. Klein is considered the first Trump nominee accused by the authorities of being involved in the riot. According to the State Department, he served as a 2017 nominee until his resignation on January 21 this year.
“The defendant got into that chaotic mess,” said Judge Zia Faruqui in her decision, according to Business Insider. “This was a group of people trying to do one thing, which is to stop democracy.”
Business Insider reported that prosecutors argued that Klein was the first group to enter the Capitol, fought with police officers and encouraged others to enter.
“Federico Klein chose to put himself in the middle of the violence destined to break through the central door on the Lower West Terrace to gain entrance to the Capitol,” prosecutors wrote in a detention memorandum obtained by Business Insider. “He used physical violence against the police officers who protected the entrance, and his individual participation in the crowd increased the general violence and the dangerousness of the day.”
Klein faces six charges, including assault, resistance or impediment to certain weapons and violent and disorderly conduct at the Capitol Grounds. He was part of a crowd that was trying to break into the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol and was seen pushing a riot shield towards a police officer.
While working at the State Department, Klein worked as a team assistant on the transition team and as a special assistant at the Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau.