Former Trump State Department Employee Arrested in Relation to Capitol Attack

Though Congress failed to hold Trump legally accountable for his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol debacle, connections to the former president keep showing up as federal investigations continue.

A former State Department employee who was appointed to his post in the government by Trump was arrested on Thursday by the FBI on felony charges related to his alleged role in the insurrection at the Capitol, reports Politico.

Frederico Klein, who also worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, was taken into law enforcement custody after he was recognized in videos and photographs captured from the violent breach of the Capitol on the day President Biden’s electoral victory was being certified.

A clear demonstration of the depravity of Republicans who take roles in American government while being violently opposed to democracy, an FBI affidavit obtained by the New York Times says Klein was in possession of Top Secret security clearance at the time he is accused of helping storm the Capitol.

Being afforded that privilege and responsibility apparently didn’t faze Klein from reportedly battling with the police on Jan. 6 and encouraging his fellow MAGA mob members to attack the halls of Congress.

From Politico:

The affidavit says video from police body-worn cameras on Jan. 6 shows Klein jamming a riot shield into doors at the Capitol as police were trying to secure them to keep the mob out. Klein was also heard on video trying to encourage others to clash with the police, the complaint says.

“We need fresh people, we need fresh people,” Klein shouted repeatedly, according to the complaint. In much of the video, he is wearing the Trump campaign’s trademark “Make America Great Again” red hat.

Klein is charged with several felonies, including assault on police officers, interfering with police during civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, as well as lesser offenses.

The FBI says Klein, who served in Iraq as a Marine, also rammed a stolen riot shield into the body of a police officer while trying to break the law enforcement line guarding the Capitol.

I can’t tell if he felt so brazen due to hubris or outright stupidity—probably a combination of the two. Hubris comes out a little ahead though, as Politico confirmed with the State Department that Klein remained in his post there until Jan. 21. That means that after cosplaying war against the United States government with a bunch of white supremacists, and after it was made public that five people died as a result of the attack, Klein did not even have the decency or shame to leave his federal job until Biden was finally inaugurated.

But then again, the president Klein was hired by and apparently chose to battle on the behalf of, has never reflected anything near to decency or a sense of shame. Birds of a feather flock together, but you know Trump will not be flocking to Klein’s side as he answers to these felonies.