Former USC swimmer, Olympian pleads guilty to felony

Olympian Klete Keller plead guilty to felony obstruction of an official proceeding for his participation in the raid on the Capitol building on Jan. 6, per TMZ.

Keller was caught on video wearing his Team USA jacket in the Capitol building, and was identified in the aftermath because of his jacket. Keller admitted he spent nearly an hour in the US Capitol building.

Klete Keller faces decades in prison and was hit with seven charges stemming from the incident.

Keller is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and won medals at the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.

Keller notably was the anchor for the 4×200 freestyle relay in the 2004 Olympics and held off Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe to win the race by 0.13 seconds

Klete Keller attended USC for two years, in 2000 and 2001 and was a four-time NCAA champion. He won multiple individual and relay Pac-10 and NCAA Championships in the 200, 500 and 1,650-yard freestyle, as well as freestyle relays. Keller ultimately left USC after two years to focus on swimming.

Prior to the Capitol attack, Klete Keller was working as an independent contractor with the real estate firm Hoff & Leigh. Six days after the incident, Hoff & Leigh released a statement saying that Keller resigned and no longer worked for the company, adding that the firm did not condone his actions.

Keller was charged by the FBI on Jan. 13 with obstructing law enforcement engaged in official duties, unlawfully entering Capitol grounds, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

On Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, an armed mob of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed past Capitol Police officers, broke windows and vandalized offices, in support of the President Trump’s claim that the 2020 election had been stolen. Five people died as a result of the event, over 138 were injured and in the aftermath, four Capitol Police officers who responded to the event died by suicide within seven months of Jan. 6.