Former State Department aide arrested in connection with riot on Capitol Hill

A former State Department aide during the Trump administration has been arrested in connection with the pro-Trump riot on the U.S. Capitol, according to an FBI spokesperson and documents.

Federico Klein was arrested by the FBI in Virginia on Thursday, but the agency declined to discuss the charges or the case, and court documents did not appear to be online.

Politico first reported the arrest.

Government records show Klein worked on Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 and was hired at the State Department in January 2017.

Government records show that in at least 2020 Klein was appointed politician in the State Department as a special assistant in the Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

An FBI spokesperson referred other matters to the District of Columbia’s United States attorney’s office.

An emailed request for comment from that office was not immediately returned Thursday evening.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cecilia L. Klein said her 42-year-old son told her after the Jan.6 attack on the Capitol that he was at the mall but did not visit the Capitol grounds.

“I asked him – he said, ‘I was at the mall’. I said, “Did you go to the Capitol grounds? He said “no I didn’t, I was at the mall,” “Cecilia Klein said over the phone Thursday night.

She said his policies were very different from that of her son and that he was not a senior official in the Trump administration.

“We are not talking about a Cabinet official or a Deputy Cabinet official,” she said. “My son was listed on Schedule C,” she said, referring to a classification in government.

Justice Department officials said they have filed charges against more than 300 people against the riot on Capitol Hill, some of which are under seal as the defendants have yet to be arrested. Federal prosecutors allege a wide range of motives and behavior, ranging from extreme violence to apparent ignorance that what they were doing was illegal.

Some have been charged with assaulting police officers and threatening to attack lawmakers, while others are charged with the lesser offense of illegally entering a protected building.

A George Washington University study this week found that more than half of those charged were unrelated to or with extremist groups.

Michael kosnar contributed.