WASHINGTON (AP) — A person who labored as a politically appointed State Division official in former President Donald Trump’s administration was convicted Thursday of prices that he attacked law enforcement officials in the course of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden heard testimony and not using a 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 one of the violent and pivotal episodes of the Jan. 6 siege: brutal waves of hand-to-hand fight between rioters and law enforcement officials in a tunnel resulting in a Capitol entrance on the Decrease West Terrace.
Klein and Cappuccio converged on the tunnel as outnumbered law enforcement officials 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 law enforcement officials. 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. However, McFadden convicted Klein of the identical obstruction cost.
The decide mentioned the tunnel was the scene of “stunning violence and hostility” in opposition to police.
“No police officer ought to have needed to endure these assaults with out provocation,” McFadden mentioned.
McFadden allowed Klein to stay free beneath 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 Prime Secret safety clearance and had been working since 2017 within the State Division’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, carrying a crimson “Make America Nice Once more” hat, was within the first wave of rioters to enter the tunnel, in accordance with prosecutors. They mentioned Klein pushed onerous in opposition to officers, telling them, “You may’t cease 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 protect between two doorways, stopping officers from closing them, prosecutors mentioned.
“With the protect as a wedge, Klein and different rioters pried the doorways open once more and continued their assaults on the police within the tunnel, which lasted for greater than two extra hours,” prosecutors wrote.
Video captured Klein exhorting different rioters to assault police, repeatedly yelling, “We want recent individuals!”
Cappuccio yelled, “Storming the fort, boys!” and chanted, “Combat for Trump!” and “Our home!” as he reached the Decrease West Terrace. Within the tunnel, he joined different rioters in pushing in opposition to the police line, prosecutors mentioned.
“All of the whereas, Cappuccio continued to carry his cellphone within 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 arms and used the baton to strike Officer Hodges within the face,” they wrote. “All through this vicious assault, Officer Hodges screamed and pleaded for assist.”
Cappuccio, additionally a navy veteran, drove from Texas to Washington, D.C. to attend Trump’s “Cease the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. He was arrested at his house in Common Metropolis, 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 “way more threatening and intentional conduct” than Klein.
“Mr. Klein will not be alleged to have injured anybody, and the federal government concedes his ‘assault’ of a regulation enforcement officer quantities to his having been in possession of a riot protect that additionally got here into contact with a regulation enforcement officer,” protection legal professional Stanley Woodward wrote in a March 2022 courtroom submitting.
One other 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 implies the decide determined the case and not using a jury primarily based on info agreed upon by each side. McFadden is scheduled to condemn Quaglin on Sept. 26.
Greater than 100 law enforcement officials have been injured in the course of the riot. Greater than 1,000 individuals have been charged with federal crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault. Roughly 100 of them have been convicted by juries or judges. Solely two have been acquitted of all prices after trials. Over 600 others have pleaded responsible.
