A Marine Corps veteran who served as a politically appointed State Department official in former President Trump's administration was sentenced on Friday to nearly six years in prison for attacking police officers during the Capitol riot. Federico Klein joined other Trump supporters in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 siege—a mob's fight with outnumbered police for control of a tunnel entrance on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace, per the
AP. Klein repeatedly assaulted officers, urged other rioters to join the fray, and tried to stop police from shutting entrance doors, according to federal prosecutors.
Klein "waged a relentless siege on police officers" as he tried to enter the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's electoral victory over Trump, prosecutors said in a court filing. Klein, who didn't testify at his trial, declined to address the court before US District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him to five years and 10 months in prison. "Your actions on January 6th were shocking and egregious," the judge told Klein. McFadden also ordered Klein to pay a $3,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution. He will report to prison at a date to be determined.
Klein worked in the State Department's office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs from 2017 until he resigned from that position on Jan. 19, 2021, a day before Biden's inauguration. Prosecutors said Klein's participation in the riot was likely motivated by a desire to keep his job as a presidential appointee. "As an employee of the federal government, Klein was endowed with the trust of the American people and to uphold the law," they wrote. "He violated that trust on January 6 when he attacked the very country for which he was paid to work." Defense attorney Stanley Woodward accused prosecutors of exaggerating Klein's role in the riot due to his political connection to the Trump administration. Related:
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- A Missouri man accused of carrying a pitchfork and assaulting police during the Capitol riot has pleaded guilty to three federal felonies, per the AP. Christopher Brian Roe, 39, of the Kansas City suburb of Raytown, pleaded guilty Thursday to three counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding certain officers. Sentencing is scheduled for March 5. A probable cause affidavit in Roe's case included 48 photos that showed a man it said was Roe breaching the Capitol, repeatedly scuffling with police, and using a metal bike rack to try to break open a door.
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