The FBI today arrested Federico Klein, a former State Department aide, on charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. It’s the first known instance of an appointee of Donald Trump facing criminal prosecution in connection with the attempt to block Congress from certifying President Biden’s victory.
Klein, 42, was taken into custody in Virginia. Details on the charges against him were not immediately available.
Klein worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and was then hired at the State Department. As of last summer, he was listed in a federal directory as serving as a special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and was designated as a “Schedule C” political appointee.
The alleged presence of a Trump political appointee at the riot may tie those events more closely to the former president, although there is already ample evidence that many of those charged were inspired by Trump’s false claims about widespread election fraud and by his call for supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6 for events that he promised would be “wild.”
Klein’s mother, Cecilia, said in a telephone interview tonight that she and her son discussed the Jan. 6 events a few weeks ago and that he confirmed he had been in Washington that day.
“As far as I know, he was on the Mall. That’s what he told me,” Cecilia Klein said.
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