A former State Department official in Donald Trump's administration has been convicted of attacking police officers during the January 6 Capitol riot.
Federico Guillermo Klein was convicted by US District Judge Trevor McFadden along with co-defendant Steven Cappuccio.
Judge McFadden heard testimony without a jury before convicting the pair of assault charges and other felony offences relating to the riot at the US Capitol by a group of Trump supporters trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Klein and Cappuccio were among nine co-defendants charged with crimes related to one of the most violent moments of the January 6 siege - brutal waves of hand-to-hand combat between rioters and police officers in a tunnel leading to a Capitol entrance on the Lower West Terrace.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that Kelin and Cappuccio converged on the tunnel as the outnumbered police officers struggled for hours to hold back the mob of rioters.
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Klein worked in the State Department during the Trump administration (Facebook)
Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results (Essdras M Suarez/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock)Judge McFadden convicted Klein on 12 counts, including six charging him with assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers. He is set to be sentenced on November 3.
Cappuccio was convicted of assault charged but acquitted of two counts by Judge McFadden, including a felony charge that he obstructed the January 6 joint session of Congress for certifying Biden's 2020 electoral victory. However, Judge McFadden convicted Klein on the same obstruction charge. Cappuccion is set to be sentenced on October 19.
The judge described the scene at the tunnel as one of "shocking violence and hostility" against police. He said: "No police officer should have had to endure those attacks without provocation."
Judge McFadden allowed Klein to remain free under house arrest until his sentencing but ordered Cappuccio to be jailed immediately after the verdict. Klein was seen shaking Cappuccio's hand in the courtroom before a deputy marshal handcuffed him.
Protesters clash with police outside the Capitol (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/REX/Shutterstock)Klein was a US Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, who had a Top Secret security clearance. He had been working since 2017 in the State Department's office of Brazillian and Southern Cone Affairs.
He resigned from that position on January 19, 2021, a day before President Joe Biden's inauguration. Klein, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat, was in the first wave of rioters to enter the tunnel, according to prosecutors.
THey said Klein pushed hard against officers, telling them: "You can't stop this!" He also apparently repeatedly drove his shoulder into an officer who tried to push him back with his baton.
Klein also wedged a stolen police riot shield between two doors, preventing officers from closing them, according to a prosecutor. Prosecutors wrote: "With the shield as a wedge, Klein and other rioters pried the doors open again and continued their attacks on the police in the tunnel, which lasted for more than two hours."
Video footage captured Klein exhorting other rioters to attack police, repeatedly yelling: "We need fresh people!"
Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021 (AP)Cappuccio yelled: "Storming the castle, boys!" and chanted "Fight for Trump!" and "Our house!" as he reached the Lower West Terrace. In the tunnel, he joined other rioters in pushing against the police line, prosecutors said.
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"All the while, Cappuccio continued to hold his phone in the air, recording the violence between the rioters and the police line," prosecutors wrote.
When another rioter pinned Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges against a door, Cappuccino ripped a gas mask off the officer's face and dislodged his helmet, according to prosecutors. They continued: "Cappuccio then took Officer Hodges' riot baton out of his hands and used the baton to strike Officer Hodges in the face. Throughout this vicious assault, Officer Hodges screamed and pleaded for help."
Cappuccio, also a military veteran, drove from Texas to Washington DC to attend Trump's 'Stop the Stal' rally on January 6. He was arrested at his home in Universal City, Texas, in August 2021.
Police were outnumbered as protesters stormed the Capitol (AP)Klein, a Washington region native, who also worked for Trump's 2016 campaign, was arrested in March 2021. His lawyer sought a separate trial for him, arguing his co-defendants were accused of engaging in "far more threatening and intentional conduct" than Klein.
"Mr Klein is not alleged to have injured anyone, and the government concedes his 'assault' of a law enforcement officer amounts to his having been in possession of a riot shield that also came into contact with a law enforcement officer," said defense attorney Stanley Woodward in a March 2022 court filing.
Another co-defendant, Christopher Quaglin, was scheduled to be tried with Klein and Cuppocio. However, earlier this month, Judge McFadden convicted Quaglin, 37, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, of 14 riot-related crimes. Quaglin had a "stipulated bench trial"< which means the judge decided the case without a jury based on facts agreed upon by both sides. Quaglin is set to be sentenced on September 26.
More than 100 police officers were injured during the riot. More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 attack. Around 100 of them have been convicted by juries or judges. Only two have been acquitted of all charges after trials. More than 500 others have pleaded guilty.
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