Trump State Dept. Employee Arrested for Attack on Capitol, Assaulting Police

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Federico G. Klein, a former mid-level aide at the State Department, is the first member of the Trump administration to face criminal charges in connection with the January 6 storming of the capital.

Klein was arrested in Virginia for charges including unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstructing Congress and law enforcement, and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon, Samantha Shero, a spokesperson for the Bureau's Washington Field Office, confirmed Thursday.

Klein, 42, worked on Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, as a "tech analyst," according to Federal Election Commission records.

According to his deleted LinkedIn page, Klein previously worked for the pro-life, pro-marriage Family Research Council as a researcher, and as a Republican state convention delegate in Virginia.

WaPo makes it clearer that he was not just an employee, but a Trump political appointee.

On Thursday, the FBI arrested a political appointee of President Donald Trump on charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint, marking the first member of the former administration arrested in connection with the insurrection.

Klein was still employed at the State Department as a staff assistant on Jan. 6 when he joined a mob in a tunnel leading into the U.S. Capitol, the FBI said. Then he allegedly “physically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the line” at the building’s entrance, according to the complaint. After ignoring officers’ orders to move back, he assaulted officers with a riot shield that had been stolen from police, the complaint said, and then used the shield to wedge open a door into the Capitol.

Klein had a top-secret security clearance that was renewed in 2019, the FBI said.

After the insurrection, Klein continued working in the State Department until Jan. 19, when he resigned the day before President Biden’s inauguration, per the complaint.

“Fred’s politics burn a little hot,” [his mother] told Politico, “but I’ve never known him to violate the law.”