A judge has ruled that a Trump-appointed State Department employee will remain in jail after being arrested last week for his alleged involvement in the deadly January 6 Capitol riot.
Federico Klein was arrested by the FBI last Thursday in connection with the Capitol Revolt. Klein is believed to be the first named Trump politician accused by authorities of being involved in the riot. According to the State Department, he served as nominee from 2017 until he resigned on January 21 this year.
“The defendant was placed in that chaotic riot,” Judge Zia Faruqui said in her ruling, according to Business Insider. “This was a group of people trying to do something, 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 get in the middle of the violence aimed at breaking down the central door of the lower west terrace to access the Capitol building.” prosecutors wrote in an arrest note obtained by Business Insider. “He used physical violence against agents protecting the entrance and his individual involvement in the larger crowd increased the violence and danger of the day.”
Klein faces six charges, including assault, resistance or impediment to certain weapons, and violent and disorderly conduct in the Camp Camp. He was allegedly part of a crowd of people trying to break into the Capitol entrance on the Lower West Terrace and was seen pushing a riot shield towards a police officer.
While working in the State Department, Klein worked as a staff assistant on the transition team and as a special assistant in the Western Hemisphere Affairs Office.