Well, we have someone who wants to discuss an issue with us… and a judge. You see, Federico “Freddie” Guillermo Klein, is quite upset because there is video evidence of him rioting on January 6th and people keep showing that footage. This is a problem, of course, for all people arrested at the riot because the FBI has a lot of footage from a lot of angles.

This difference here is that Freddie Klein is the only Trump political employee arrested at the riot. Klein worked at the State Department from 2017 until January of 2021 (Wonder what happened?) and he had worked on Trump’s staff in 2016. We don’t know of another political appointee arrested at the riot. That will earn one a lot of attention and, to the extent there is video evidence, well – that’s an issue for defense attorneys. Thanks to Rawstory for digging through the Court docs:

Even were the Court to conclude that it is in the possession of ‘video evidence’ that must be produced pursuant to Judge Howell’s Standing Order, Mr. Klein respectfully requests the Court exercise its discretion in rejecting this request. Mr. Klein has been the subject of significant media scrutiny since his arrest and initial detention and has routinely been characterized in an unflattering manner, bordering a presumption of guilt in the court of public opinion. The release of the videos referenced by the Government will most certainly be prejudicial to Mr. Klein in the preparation of his defense as well as in ensuring that an impartial jury can ultimately weigh the evidence in this case.

Well, normally that actually might be an issue. But in this matter, the video was almost surely out even prior to the charges being filed, and if not, some footage, regarding the crowds was out, so it’s not like this is a surveillance video that’s released to a jury pool. Additionally, if Klein believed that a photo of him doing stuff that he knew would be on national television, and that it was an unflattering look, he might have thought of that before he became the one government political appointee, that we know of, to be arrested.

We dearly hope that more government political employees will be arrested soon enough…. We hope.

One last thing. Having now been found pleading to the judge that the video is very prejudicial, it is getting spread around the internet, like it’s a great way to get back at the guy. It’s actually the worst way. It becomes a bigger and bigger story and gets seen by more and more people, making him almost the celebrity defendant, the more valid his argument becomes. We think it’s a weak argument anyway, but more coverage certainly strengthens it.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak