January 6th Insurrection.Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty
Federico Klein, who worked in the State Department at the time of the insurrection and had a top-secret security clearance, was convicted of six felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, and one count each of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder.
He was also convicted of misdemeanor offenses of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds.
Federico Klein.FBI
FBI
Prosecutors argued that Klein did not enter the U.S. Capitol that day, but was seen in surveillance footage in a tunnel leading into the building, where some of the worst violence against police took place. According tocourt filings, Klein entered the tunnel at approximately 2:43 p.m., less than two hours after Trump gave a now-infamous speech urging his supporters to “fight like Hell” and march to the Capitol.
Once inside the tunnel, prosecutors say, Federico “began to yell at law enforcement officers, ignored commands to leave, and attempted to grab a police officer riot shield.”
The Department of Justice says that Klein attempted to forcibly push against police with his legs and arms and, as police attempted to close a door to the tunnel, “used a stolen police riot shield as a wedge to thwart police” from closing it.
Donald Trump supporters riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results.Samuel Corum/Getty
In testimony given under oath during the House committee hearings on the riot, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwardsshared a harrowing account of being under attackfrom her fellow Americans during the riots.
“What I saw was just a war scene,” Edwards said in testimony that aired in primetime last year, adding: “I could not believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. They were throwing up. I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos.”
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Speaking on a radio show in 2022, Trump said that if he wins the race for president in 2024, he will “be looking very, very strongly about pardons, full pardons” for those arrested for their involvement in the riots.
source: people.com
