Former Trump State Department appointee sentenced to 70 months in prison
after assaulting police officers at US Capitol
Holmes Lybrand
By Holmes Lybrand, CNN
v
CNN �

A former appointee of Donald Trump was sentenced Friday to 70 months in
prison for his violent role on January 6, 2021.

Federico Klein, a former State Department appointee, was found guilty
following a bench trial before Judge Trevor McFadden this summer of
multiple counts, including assaulting multiple police officers that day.

�Your actions on January 6 were shocking and egregious,� McFadden, also a
Trump appointee, said during Friday�s sentencing.

According to the judge, Klein assaulted an officer during an initial breach
on the Capitol grounds, telling the officer �you can�t stop us.�

McFadden also detailed several other assaults on officers from Klein, many
of which occurred in the lower west terrace tunnel, one of the most violent
scenes that day.

�This is a government of law, not of men,� McFadden said, adding that Klein
had �betrayed your office.�

During Friday�s sentencing, former US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell
told the court that Klein had attacked him multiple times with a police
riot shield.

Gonell questioned how �someone who took the same oath as I did� to protect
the Constitution, could be involved in such an assault on the Capitol.

Prosecutors also noted Klein � an ex-US Marine � had access to sensitive
information with a security clearance at the State Department and suggested
that in attacking the Capitol to keep Trump as President, Klein could have
also been trying to keep his job as a political appointee.

Investigators found several images of Klein in the riot allegedly using a
police riot shield to wedge open an entrance for rioters and fighting
against a police line for several minutes, according to his arrest
affidavit. Klein wore a red �Make America Great Again� hat then changed
into a �United States Marine Corps� hat during the riot, investigators say.

Stanley Woodward, Klein�s attorney, said in court that Klein had not
planned to attack the Capitol that day, adding that �no one person caused
January 6.�

Woodward, who also represents Trump�s co-defendant Walt Nauta in the
classified documents case in Florida, noted Klein had worked on Trump�s
2016 campaign.

Klein�s actions on January 6, Woodward said, were �not a betrayal� of his
service in the military and the State Department, but was part of attending
�a protest turned wrong.�

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/03/politics/federico-klein-trump-state-
department-january-6-us-capitol/index.html