WASHINGTON — A federal judge convicted a former State Department appointee Thursday on eight felony counts for joining the assault on police inside a tunnel at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Federico Klein, of Virginia, was found guilty of six counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding police and one count each of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding — all felonies — on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden. McFadden also convicted Klein on four misdemeanor counts, but said the government hadn't met its burden to apply dangerous weapon enhancements that could have resulted in Klein being sent directly to jail to await sentencing.
Klein, who previously worked on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, was appointed by the former president to serve in the State Department in 2017. He resigned two weeks after the riot and was arrested in March 2021 after a number of witnesses, including a former State Department co-worker, saw his picture on an FBI wanted poster.
McFadden, a former deputy attorney general who was himself nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2017, said the government had easily proven Klein wanted to disrupt the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. He also found he'd assaulted, resisted or impeded multiple officers inside the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, including former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell.
Klein was one of nine defendants superseded into a case focusing on that tunnel – the site of some of the most violent and prolonged assaults on police on Jan. 6. Six of Klein’s co-defendants have already been convicted, including Patrick McCaughey III, a Connecticut man who received seven-and-a-half years in prison for crushing DC Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a doorframe. Another of Klein’s co-defendants, Christopher Quaglin, pleaded guilty to all charges on the first day of trial earlier this month after bringing on new counsel.
The Justice Department says video from inside the tunnel shows Klein forcing his way to the front of the crowd and attempting to grab a riot shield out of an officer's hands before picking up a large metal pole. On Thursday, McFadden said Klein had "strained mightily" against officers' attempts to push him and other rioters out of the tunnel and that his own words on the video proved his intent — highlighting one point at which he yelled, "We need fresh people!" amid the assault.
Over the government's objection, McFadden allowed Klein to return home to await his sentencing on Nov. 3.
In addition to Klein, McFadden convicted his co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, of Texas, of two counts of assaulting police and multiple other charges. McFadden said the evidence showed Cappuccio had violent ripped off Hodges’ gas mask and struck him on the head with a baton at the same time McCaughey was pinning him in the doorframe. He rejected claims made by Cappuccio that he that the mob was attacking “antifa” in the tunnel and that his actions were a response to military service-related trauma.
“I do not credit the suggestion that Mr. Cappuccio’s vicious attack on Officer Hodges was the result of a momentary PTSD episode,” McFadden said.
However, McFadden acquitted Cappuccio of one felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and a lesser misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. He said the government hadn’t proven what he was trying to accomplish by attacking police.
“His actions are consistent with someone who participated in mob violence, but without any grand plan,” McFadden said.
Unlike Klein, McFadden said Cappuccio’s actions did warrant an enhancement for using a dangerous weapon. Because of that, he ordered Cappuccio into the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Service while he awaits a sentencing hearing on Oct. 19.