Former Trump appointee sentenced to almost 6 years for role in Jan. 6 attack
Frederico “Freddie” Klein, a former Trump administration State Department appointee and Marine Corps veteran, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for multiple crimes he committed in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
The decision was handed down Friday by Judge Trevor McFadden in United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Klein was convicted of eight felonies including six counts of assault, one count of civil disorder and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding.
The former Trump appointee was also accused of repeatedly assaulting officers, urging other rioters to join the attack and attempting to block Capitol police from closing doors — at one point using a police riot shield to force his way in, reports CBS News.
He was charged with using the object to “forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with, an officer,” according to court documents.
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell was there on the day of the attack, and testified that he was assaulted by Klein and the mob of rioters.
“I went from protecting the Capitol building to fighting for my survival,” Gonell said.
“Your actions on Jan. 6 were shocking and egregious,” Judge McFadden told Klein during the proceedings. Prosecutors claimed he “waged a relentless siege on police officers” during the Jan. 6 attack.
Klein waived his own right to address the court. Instead, his defense attorney, Stanley Woodward, argued the punishment handed down was too severe, even though the sentence was well below the 10-year term the government sought.
Woodward said Klein was being unfairly judged because of his former political affiliations. “No one person caused the events of Jan. 6,” the attorney added.
_____
