A person who labored as a politically appointed State Department official in former President Donald Trump’s administration was convicted Thursday of prices that he attacked cops through the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden heard testimony with no jury earlier than he convicted the previous official, Federico Guillermo Klein, and a co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, of assault prices and different felony offenses stemming from the riot on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Klein and Cappuccio have been amongst 9 co-defendants charged with crimes associated to some of the violent and pivotal episodes of the Jan. 6 siege: brutal waves of hand-to-hand fight between rioters and cops in a tunnel resulting in a Capitol entrance on the Lower West Terrace.
Klein and Cappuccio converged on the tunnel as outnumbered cops struggled for hours to carry again the mob of rioters, prosecutors mentioned in a courtroom submitting.
McFadden convicted Klein of 12 counts, together with six charging him with assaulting, resisting or impeding cops. Klein is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3.
The decide is scheduled to condemn Cappuccio on Oct. 19. McFadden convicted him of assault prices however acquitted him of two counts, together with a felony cost that he obstructed the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. But, McFadden convicted Klein of the identical obstruction cost.
The decide mentioned the tunnel was the scene of “shocking violence and hostility” in opposition to police.
“No police officer should have had to endure those attacks without provocation,” McFadden mentioned.
McFadden allowed Klein to stay free underneath home arrest till his sentencing however ordered Cappuccio to be jailed instantly after the decision. Klein shook Cappuccio’s hand within the courtroom earlier than a deputy marshal handcuffed him.
Klein, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, had a Top Secret safety clearance and had been working since 2017 within the State Department’s workplace of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs. He resigned from that place on Jan. 19, 2021, a day earlier than President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Klein, sporting a pink “Make America Great Again” hat, was within the first wave of rioters to enter the tunnel, in line with prosecutors. They mentioned Klein pushed exhausting in opposition to officers, telling them, “You can’t stop this!” and repeatedly drove his shoulder into an officer who tried to push him again along with his baton.
Klein additionally wedged a stolen police riot defend between two doorways, stopping officers from closing them, prosecutors mentioned.
“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 more hours,” prosecutors wrote.
Video captured Klein exhorting different rioters to assault police, repeatedly yelling, “We need fresh people!”
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 different rioters in pushing in opposition to the police line, prosecutors mentioned.
“All the while, Cappuccio continued to hold his phone in the air, recording the violence between the rioters and the police line,” they wrote.
When one other rioter pinned Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges in opposition to a door, Cappuccio ripped a gasoline masks off the officer’s face and dislodged his helmet, prosecutors mentioned.
“Cappuccio then took Officer Hodges’ riot baton out of his hands and used the baton to strike Officer Hodges in the face,” they wrote. “Throughout this vicious assault, Officer Hodges screamed and pleaded for help.”
Cappuccio, additionally a army veteran, drove from Texas to Washington, D.C. to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. He was arrested at his house in Universal City, Texas, in August 2021.
Klein, a local of Washington area who additionally labored for Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign, was arrested in March 2021.
Klein’s lawyer had sought a separate trial for him, arguing that his co-defendants have been accused of participating 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,” protection lawyer Stanley Woodward wrote in a March 2022 courtroom submitting.
Another co-defendant, Christopher Quaglin, was scheduled to be tried with Klein and Cappuccio. Earlier this month, nevertheless, McFadden convicted Quaglin, 37, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, of 14 riot-related crimes. Quaglin had a “stipulated bench trial,” which suggests the decide determined the case with no jury based mostly on info agreed upon by each side. McFadden is scheduled to condemn Quaglin on Sept. 26.
More than 100 cops have been injured through the riot. More than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault. Approximately 100 of them have been convicted by juries or judges. Only two have been acquitted of all prices after trials. Over 600 others have pleaded responsible.
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