Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Federico Klein, the Trump-appointed State Department aide charged with assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, will remain in jail awaiting trial, a federal magistrate ruled Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Zia Faruqui, the magistrate overseeing the case, rejected Klein\u2019s effort to cast doubt on whether he was really the person observed in videos attacking police with a riot shield. And he also dismantled an effort by Klein\u2019s team to portray his actions amid the mob as a product of chaos \u2014 rather than violence toward law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant placed himself in that chaotic riot, and this was not a riot with many people on different sides,\u201d Faruqui said. \u201cThere was a chaotic riot of law enforcement trying to protect democracy of the United States of America and people trying to breach the line and prevent that from occurring.\u201d <\/p>\n
Klein, 42, is the only known appointee of former President Donald Trump to face charges connected to the Capitol breach. He was seen on Capitol security and police-worn cameras repeatedly attacking police in a tunnel underneath the Capitol\u2019s west front entrance. Prosecutors say Klein spent 30 minutes inside the tunnel at the front lines of a mob \u201cfanatically\u201d engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat with officers. While in the crowd, he repeatedly called for \u201cfresh people\u201d to rotate in and press into the Capitol, the government contends.<\/p>\n
Faruqui pointed to that exhortation, saying it showed Klein taking a \u201cposition of leadership,\u201d proving he remains a danger to the community \u2014 particularly while the Capitol remains in a heavily militarized posture amid ongoing security threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a real danger of violence,\u201d he said, \u201cand if someone is an organizer or leader or someone\u2019s in a position of authority and they are not detained they may go back and seek to conduct such violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faruqui also ridiculed the defense\u2019s claim that it was unclear how Klein obtained the riot shield he allegedly jammed into a door as police were trying to close to lock out the rioters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is fairly self-evident unless you\u2019re a police officer you should not be handling the tools of the trade of a police officer,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Klein, who worked on the Trump campaign in 2016 before he was posted in the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs in the State Department, was arrested last week after a former colleague helped authorities identify him. Klein, who holds a Top Secret security clearance, remained employed at the State Department until he resigned on Jan. 19.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors argued that Klein\u2019s position at the department underscored the need to detain him pending trial. He took an oath to the Constitution, they argued, and then violated it to commit a violent assault at the Capitol. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government trusted him,\u201d said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Bond. \u201cHe really squandered that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klein\u2019s attorney, Stanley Woodward, argued that the government had not proven that his client was the one seen in the videos committing the assault on officers. He also said prosecutors had not shown that Klein was seeking to overturn the election results, despite asserting it as his motive. And he noted that Klein served in the Marine Corps in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Klein has made his displeasure with his confinement known. During his initial appearance in court last week, he complained of cockroaches at the cellblock where he had slept overnight. On Tuesday, he pointedly noted that he was appearing in the hearing from a \u201ccinderblock room.\u201d<\/p>\n