FBI arrests former Trump State Dept. appointee over Capitol attack

March 5 (UPI) -- The FBI says it has arrested Federico Klein, a former State Department official appointed by former President Donald Trump, over the Jan. 6 mob attack at the U.S. Capitol.

Klein was named a special assistant in the department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs by Trump in 2017. Before his appointment, he was a member of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

FBI agents arrested Klein, 42, in Virginia, making him the first known member of the Trump administration to be charged in the Capitol riot.

An FBI statement posted by The New York Times said Klein still worked at the State Department on the day of the Capitol attack and possessed top-secret clearance as part of his work. The document identifies Klein as being inside the Capitol during the assault, defying police officers and holding a door to the building open with a stolen police shield.

Klein's now-deleted LinkedIn page showed that he previously worked for the Family Research Council as a researcher and was a Republican state convention delegate in Virginia.

Klein's mother told Politico that her son admitted to being in Washington, D.C., on the day of the attack, but not inside the Capitol.

"Fred's politics burn a little hot but I've never known him to violate the law," Cecilia Klein told the news outlet. "As he said, he was on the [National] Mall that day, [but] I don't have any evidence, nor will I ever ask him, unless he tells me, where he was after."