Trump appointee arrested after Capitol riot to stay in jail before trial, judge rules

A judge has ruled that a Trump-appointed State Department employee will stay in jail after he was arrested last week for his alleged involvement in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Federico Klein was arrested by the FBI last Thursday in connection with the Capitol riot. Klein is believed to be the first Trump political appointee accused by authorities of being involved in the riot. According to the State Department, he served as an appointee from 2017 until he resigned on Jan. 21 of this year.

“The defendant placed himself in that chaotic riot,” Judge Zia Faruqui said in his ruling, according to Business Insider. “This was a group of people trying to do one thing, which is to stop democracy.”

Business Insider reported that prosecutors argued Klein was in the first group to enter the Capitol, fought with police officers and encouraged others to enter.

“Federico Klein chose to put himself in the thick of the violence aimed at breaking through the center doorway on the Lower West Terrace to gain entrance to the Capitol Building,” prosecutors wrote in a detention memo obtained by Business Insider. “He used physical violence against officers who were protecting the entrance, and his individual participation in the larger mob heightened the overall violence and dangerousness of the day.”

Klein faces six charges, including assault, resisting or impeding certain weapons, and violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds. He was allegedly part of a crowd of people attempting to breach the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol and was seen shoving a riot shield toward a police officer.

While working in the State Department, Klein worked as a staff assistant with the transition team and as a special assistant in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.