A Trump selection for a role at the State Department has been sentenced to over five and a half years in prison after joining the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, where he fought police inside the tunnel at the building’s Lower West Terrace. His prison sentence is 70 months.
Federico Klein was in that tunnel for roughly 30 minutes, joining multiple times with the rioters around him in attempts to rhythmically use their body weight to force their way through the lines of police blocking their further access. The Justice Department summarizes those efforts as a “heave-ho” push in which the crowd rocked back and forth. Klein directly physically engaged with police, leading to his felony convictions. Like other rioters that day, he used equipment that actually originated with police, utilizing a riot shield against officers.
Klein’s sentence, handled by federal Judge Trevor McFadden, also includes two years of supervised release after his prison sentence and a financial penalty. The sentence is below what prosecutors wanted the judge to impose, which would have been a decade in prison. The judges in these Capitol riot cases have leeway to make their own sentencing decisions.
In other news from Capitol riot cases, a defendant facing a hearing on potentially sending him to jail ahead of sentencing after he used violently threatening language against a law enforcement officer associated with his case began to fight personnel in the courtroom after the judge handed down an adverse decision. “Marshals order courtroom cleared as GossJankowski is physically resisting agents who are trying to cuff him. He makes gutteral screams and fights off agents,” CBS journalist Scott MacFarlane reported that day. The defendant was Vitali GossJankowski. In his original comments to the law enforcement officer that spurred the entire hearing, he also expressed racist sentiments about multiple groups and referenced sexual violence.
