Some Jan. 6 defendants have recanted and said they were misled by former President Donald Trump, but not Federico Klein, who said that if there was a real victim in that chaos at the U.S. Capitol that day, it was Mr. Trump.
Staring down a nearly six-year prison sentence as the first Trump appointee convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, Klein told The Washington Times that he regrets being at the Capitol that day but doesn’t regret standing up for the president.
What’s more, he said Mr. Trump should never have been subjected to an inquisition by the news media, Congress and the Justice Department for challenging the 2020 election results.
“What’s particularly galling is the repeated accusations [from Trump opponents] of a tampered with and illegitimate election of 2016, and then these people turn around [in 2020] and say, ’Now, this has been the most secure election, and this is a perfectly valid election. So, that’s too bad for President Trump,’” he said.
Klein spoke with The Times while in home confinement at a Virginia residence, where he has been for the past 15 months. He is awaiting notice to report to a federal prison.
“My regrets run to the abuse, however mild, that the police suffered,” he said. “I do have some remorse for them. Do I wish I hadn’t been there? Yes. If I could push a button, I would wish I hadn’t been there.”
He also blamed the dirty politics of Washington for undoing Mr. Trump’s presidency and now threatening Mr. Trump with politically motivated criminal prosecutions.
“Politics, because it’s a dirty, dishonest business, he finally got involved because he saw this country was completely going over the edge,” Klein said. “Around 2020 and afterward, he had learned his lesson, but it was too little, too late, and the knives were out for him.”
He predicted Mr. Trump would do things differently next time.
“I know one thing is for sure,” Klein said, “he would never make the same mistakes that he made in 2015 and 2016 as far as who he surrounds himself with.”
Klein, 45, is a Marine Corps veteran Mr. Trump named a special assistant in the State Department’s office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs. He resigned from that post on Jan. 19, 2021, a day before President Biden’s inauguration.
For his role in the Jan. 6 riot, Klein was convicted of 12 criminal counts, including six assault charges for fighting with police outside the Capitol. On Nov. 3, he was sentenced to 70 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release and ordered to pay $5,000 in fines and restitution. A GiveSendGo page is set up for him to help pay his legal fees.
Klein told The Times that he doesn’t want to be presumptuous about being freed from prison if Mr. Trump wins the White House in 2024, but he thinks there would be pardons or commuted sentences for not only himself but for virtually every Jan. 6 convict.
“That’s something that Trump would do out of gratitude, if not out of a desire to watch the opposition lose their minds,” he said.
Mr. Trump has promised he would pardon a “large portion” of the people convicted of federal offenses for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” the former president said at a CNN town hall event.
Although Klein will be behind bars for the 2024 campaigns, he says he wants Mr. Trump to run the “absolute best campaign that he can” and not “hold back on anything.”
“At this point, he’s got to know that he’s never going to please people he thinks maybe are fence-sitters within the party or otherwise,” he said.
Klein was in the pro-Trump mob that stormed into the Lower West Terrace Tunnel entrance and clashed with U.S. Capitol Police.
According to accounts related in court, Klein then used both of his arms and body to forcibly push against police. As police attempted to close a door to the tunnel, Klein used a police riot shield as a wedge to keep the door open.
A video from the scene showed Klein telling law enforcement, “You can’t stop this!”
Klein told The Times he got swept up in the mob.
“It’s part of being part of the crowd because there are people all around you pushing in that direction and, sometimes, I wound up in the front there,” Klein said. “Just look at the video footage. You can see the way everyone’s dressed. They’re not dressed to do battle.”
He also said he did not realize people would not be allowed inside the Capitol when they arrived on the grounds. He was surprised and confused when law enforcement confronted them, he said.
“Immediately, I thought that there was something fishy going on because by that time,” Klein said. “I already knew that [then-Vice President] Mike Pence had said he was going to certify the electors as they were, so that was too bad.”
Although law enforcement initially resisted, Klein said, suddenly it appeared that the police broke their lines and let the crowd move forward toward the Capital.
According to reports and video, the police were vastly outnumbered by protesters and became overwhelmed by the crowds.
Klein said he went alone to Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 and met people that day who appeared impressed with his position in the administration.
“I met a lot of people, and I spoke with a lot of people, and that’s partly why I went,” he said. “I could also be a voice from the administration in an unofficial capacity.”
Prosecutors said Klein was motivated to join the rally and the mob by his desire to keep his job by keeping Mr. Trump in the White House.
Klein concedes that law enforcement was likely frightened and following orders from their superiors when they clashed with the protesters. However, he also said that many of the same congressional lawmakers who praised police after the Jan. 6 riot, also called police “every name in the book” during the George Floyd riots in 2020.
Almost 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. More than 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.
Approximately 700 people involved in the riot have been sentenced with about two-thirds getting prison terms ranging from three days to 22 years.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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