A former State Department official who appointed former President Donald Trump complained to a judge about prison conditions on Friday after he was arrested on January 6 for storming the U.S. Capitol.
Federico Guillermo Klein, 42, became the first Trump administration official to be arrested for participating in the uprising, during which he allegedly assaulted an officer with a weapon. With his first appearance Friday, Klein did not want to plead guilty, but asked U.S. Magistrate Zia M. Faruqui to move out of his custody due to poor circumstances.
“I wonder if there is a place where I can stay in detention where I do not crawl cockroaches over me while trying to sleep,” he said. Washington Post. ‘I mean, I really did not sleep that much, Your Honor. It would be nice if I could sleep in a place where there are no cockroaches everywhere. ‘
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Faruqui assured Klein that he would soon be moving to a jail in DC and officials would address the dire conditions of his detention center.
“Very well, I appreciate it,” he said.
In court documents, Klein is also accused of opening a door and urging the crowd to gather reinforcements during the siege. “We need fresh people, fresh people,” he said amid the chaos Post.
At one point, Klein apparently lost his Make America Great Again cap and grabbed the wrong one off the ground during the chaos.
In a statement, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Klein was working for the department between 2017 and January 19, 2021 when he resigned from the post. He was still on staff when he took part in the riot on January 6. “This is being investigated by the FBI, and they are the appropriate agency to answer questions specifically related to the charges,” the spokesman added.
Trump appointed Klein shortly after his inauguration, on January 22, 2017. According to ProPublica, Klein earned $ 66,510 in his role as Special Assistant in the Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office told Politico that Klein had been arrested in the state of Virginia.
Klein was charged with several offenses, including interfering with police during civil unrest, assaulting police officers, obstructing an official process and knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against any person or property in any restricted buildings or grounds.
The Department of Foreign Affairs refused Newsweek se request for further comment.