Former Trump State Department appointee guilty in Jan. 6 tunnel assaults

A former political appointee of President Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday of joining assaults on police on Jan. 6, 2021, that included one of the most prolonged attacks on officers by rioters in a tunnel at the Lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol.

Federico G. Klein, a State Department appointee with a top-secret clearance, was convicted on all counts, including 10 felony charges involving six violent confrontations with multiple law enforcement officers and obstruction of the electoral vote count, after a week-long bench trial before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden. A co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, was convicted of six felony counts, but McFadden acquitted him of the obstruction charge and a misdemeanor, ruling that Cappuccio was not politically savvy enough to intend to stop the electoral vote count.

Klein and Cappuccio separately made their way to the Lower West Terrace, where their victims were. One included D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges, who in one of the day’s most harrowing events was recorded on camera being pinned to a metal door frame by the mob with Klein’s help, while Cappuccio ripped away his baton and gas mask while yelling, “How you like me now, f----er!”

A third co-defendant, Christopher Joseph Quaglin, was found guilty on 14 other counts on the first day of trial last week after admitting to stipulated facts. Klein and Cappuccio were charged with 21 counts overall, including eight counts of assaulting police, robbery, rioting and obstruction of an official proceeding (Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 presidential election result).

“No police officer,” McFadden said, “should have had to endure these attacks without provocation.” He pointed to specific video evidence presented during the trial to reject Klein’s claims that he acted unintentionally.

All three men and four co-defendants previously convicted and sentenced were active parts of a mob that pushed, shoved, struck, punched and sprayed police, prosecutors said. At times they used officers’ own weapons against them, including batons, riot shields and chemical spray, prosecutors said. Video clips showed officers vomiting and screaming in pain from assaults, while others testified about being tackled into the crowd and being kicked repeatedly in the helmet.

“There are many violent offenses in this case because the defendants were relentless in their attacks on officers and their attempts to enter the building,” federal prosecutor Ashley Akers said in an opening statement.

Klein, 42, served in the Marine Corps Reserves in Iraq before working on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and gaining a mid-level State Department appointment. Prosecutors said he, Cappuccio and Quaglin independently made their way to the Lower West Terrace, where police dug in against the mob that afternoon unaware that other Capitol entrances were already breached.

Prosecutors specifically accused Klein of using a stolen police riot shield to smash up against one officer repeatedly, as another rioter reached over the shield to grab the officer’s baton.

“You can’t stop this!” Klein told other officers while pushing against them, wearing an olive-green coat and red ball cap. Klein also wedged a riot shield between doors police were trying to shut, prosecutors said.

Testifying for the government, Hodges described the confrontation with Klein and Cappuccio, as he was pinned against a door frame in a passageway police were defending to prevent rioters from reentering the building. Rioters used stolen police shields to press against officers, shouting “Heave! Ho!” to time their surges. Video footage showed Cappuccio yanking away Hodges’s mask while his arms are immobilized, pulling it off his head and punching him in the face.

“I’m screaming and bleeding from the mouth . . . and in fear,” Hodges said.

“I was trapped. I could not turn my body,” he said. “I could do nothing but stare at the person in front of me as he stole my baton and struck me with it.” As he has testified to Congress and in an earlier trial, the officer maintained: “As harrowing and violent and traumatic as it was, I’m glad I was there . . . able to help defend, and do what I had to do.”

Klein did not testify, but defense attorney Stanley Woodward said prosecutors failed to prove that it was Klein’s off-camera voice that was recorded taunting police, and he argued that isolated moments captured on video in fact showed that his client was pushed in to police lines by rioters around him.

“It is not beyond a reasonable doubt that what our friend in the green jacket is doing is using his shoulder to heave into” police officers, Woodward said, “This case rests on reasonable doubt. . . . There’s not enough to show an intent to interfere with police.”

Cappuccio, an Army veteran and Bradley Fighting Vehicle commander who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had a combat “flashback” while in the tunnel, defense attorney Marina Douenat said. Cappuccio “went from zero to 100″ when hit from behind the moment before he faced Hodges, she said.

Taking the stand in his own defense, Cappuccio testified that he quickly backed off, explaining: “I heard a voice say, ‘Don’t hit that person. He’s an American. He’s doing his job.’”

“Then I thought, ‘Oh f---, what did I just do?’” he added.

Cappuccio said he drove from Texas at a friend’s behest and had no plans for violence. He said he spent most of his time taking video with his camera, had no intention of disrupting Congress and became upset when he saw others in the crowd hit with pepper spray by police.

“I did say, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ " he testified. “I feel terrible about what happened in that tunnel. It was a horrible thing.”

McFadden accepted Cappuccio’s testimony that he didn’t follow politics and was “not informed about the certification process,” and that his actions may have been sparked by seeing officers clashing with protesters. He found Cappuccio didn’t have the necessary intent to obstruct the congressional proceeding and found him not guilty. Cappuccio was convicted of two felony assaults on police, including use of a deadly weapon for hitting Hodges with the officer’s baton, robbery of a police shield, civil disorder, two felony disorderly conduct counts and one misdemeanor.

The judge did not acquit Klein of any of the 12 counts against him, including six felony assaults on police, obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, felony disorderly conduct and use of physical violence in a restricted building, and two disorderly conduct misdemeanors. He cited Klein’s texts, which indicated he was well aware of the electoral college process on Jan. 6.

Though McFadden believed Cappuccio’s claims that he was not politically savvy, the judge found some of Cappuccio’s testimony “incredible, which gives me pause about trusting him.” He ordered federal marshals to take Cappuccio into custody, which has happened rarely with Jan. 6 defendants, even after sentencing. Klein was allowed to remain free pending sentencing on Nov. 3.