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The arrest comes as a warning of an alleged plan by a militia to storm the Capitol on Thursday prompted the tightening of already extreme security measures in the U.S. capital.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Thursday an official of former President Donald Trump for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, becoming the first person arrested linked to the previous government, reports EFE agency.
The person arrested was Federico Klein, a 42-year-old man who during the Trump administration worked at the State Department as a political appointee. Specifically, the detainee was first assigned to the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, in the department in charge of Brazil and the Southern Cone, and then transferred to the office that administers requests for access to federal information FOIA.
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Klein, arrested in Virginia, had previously worked for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign as an analyst. Before getting involved in politics alongside the mogul, Klein served in the Marine Corps in Iraq.
More than 300 people have been charged in federal courts for the Capitol assault, but Klein is the first with clear ties to the Trump administration.
The FBI did not detail to Politico what crimes Klein is charged with.
The arrest is known when the warning of an alleged plan of a militia to storm this Thursday in the Capitol caused the reinforcement of the already extreme security measures in the U.S. capital, which have turned downtown Washington into a deserted fortress, where more than 5,000 National Guard troops protect the building.
Breaking via Politico: FBI arrests former State Department aide Federico Klein on charges related to the Capitol attack, the first known instance of a Trump appointee facing criminal prosecution over the insurrection.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) March 5, 2021
This Thursday, the Capitol Police requested a 60-day extension of the National Guard members deployed in the U.S. capital and who were initially scheduled to leave on March 12. "The National Guard should stay as long as necessary," said Nancy Pelosi, the House of Representatives speaker, which canceled its activities until next week because of the recent threat at a press conference.
Since last January 6, when a mob of former President Donald Trump supporters violently seized Congress, in tumultuous events that left five dead and whose images went around the world, the Capitol looks more like a military base than the seat of the U.S. legislature. The assailants wielded complaints, encouraged by Trump himself without any evidence, of fraud in last November's presidential election.
The assault occurred precisely when a joint session of the two chambers of Congress was held to ratify Biden's victory in the November elections.
Because of that attack, Trump was subjected to his second impeachment trial in the Senate, from which he was acquitted last February 13, after having already left the White House.
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