Washington: A gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer faces charges for his role in last week’s Capitol riot.
Klete Keller, a former relay teammate of Michael Phelps, was charged with disorderly conduct, entering restricted grounds and obstructing law enforcement, according to court records. In videos posted online, Keller can be seen standing in the Rotunda during last Wednesday’s riot, wearing a dark jacket with a USA Olympics patch.
Keller participated in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 summer Olympics, winning a total of five medals, including two golds.
The charges were filed Wednesday in U.S. district court in Washington.
In recent days, U.S. prosecutors have ramped up the investigation into last week’s riot at the Capitol, with more than 170 suspects under scrutiny and law enforcement officials planning charges of sedition and conspiracy.
The probe is one of the most expansive criminal investigations in the history of the Justice Department, with a wide assortment of agencies helping to build cases, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals. All 56 FBI field offices are involved.
“The scope and scale of this investigation in these cases are really unprecedented,” Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, told reporters on Tuesday. “We are going to have, I believe, hundreds of criminal cases.”
On Wednesday night, Sherwin’s office said in a statement that two off-duty Virginia police officers had also been charged in connection with the Capitol riot.
The officers, Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker, work for the Rocky Mount Police Department and were charged with entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct, according to the statement.
A call to the department on Wednesday night was not answered. – Bloomberg
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