Federico Klein, a then-political appointee at the State Department under former President Donald Trump, was arrested by the FBI in Virginia on Thursday over his alleged participation in the violent siege of the Capitol in January.
The charges include illegal entry, disorderly conduct and assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon, according to the FBI’s criminal complaint against Klein, who was still working at the department at that time. The complaint, which was published by the New York Times, also includes photos of that allegedly show Klein as being part of the mob of insurrectionists as they were breaching the Capitol building.
He is the first Trump official to be arrested over alleged direct ties to the insurrection.
FBI Washington Field office spokesperson Samantha Shero first confirmed the arrest to Politico.
Klein was a “tech analyst” at the 2016 Trump campaign before he began working at the State Department, per Federal Election Commission records. He was an assistant at the department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Politico reports that Klein’s now-deleted LinkedIn profile showed he also held top-secret security clearance from 2014 to 2019, which was issued from the Defense Department.
His defense: “I was just trying to keep my job!”
Good work. I can’t wait to find out who else the investigation uncovers being in on it.
“Only the best people.”
It’s a start.
Let’s get em all, the traitorous bastards.
I am particularly disturbed by his 5 year security clearance.