Sister of Chicago police officer charged in Capitol riot now also arrested

A year and a half after federal prosecutors charged a Chicago police officer for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, they have now also filed criminal charges against his sister.

Agnieszka Chwiesiuk, 29, of Chicago, was arrested Monday and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Keith Scherer, an attorney representing Agnieszka Chwiesiuk, declined to comment later Monday. The charges filed against her are misdemeanors. She is now at least the 35th Illinois resident charged in the Capitol riot.

An FBI special agent wrote in court records that Chwiesiuk’s police officer brother, Karol, had been accompanied in the Capitol by a female with long hair. She wore a red knit cap with white and blue stripes, a white and blue face mask featuring upside-down U.S. flags, a black coat and a black mini backpack, the agent wrote. She’d also kept her hat pulled down to her eyebrows, obscuring most of her face in available photos and videos.

However, when the FBI arrested Karol Chwiesiuk at his family home in Chicago in June 2021, Agnieszka Chwiesiuk apparently asked whether she would also be taken into custody.

The FBI seized Karol Chwiesiuk’s phone, the agent wrote. It had been so damaged it would not turn on. Still, the FBI managed to recover images from the phone. Among them was a photo of his sister in the Capitol without her face mask, records show.

The feds say Agnieszka Chwiesiuk attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, then walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol with her brother and others.

U.S. District Court records

Agnieszka Chwiesiuk allegedly entered the Capitol at 2:58 p.m. through a broken Senate Wing doorway, walked into the Crypt and left the building around 3:06 p.m.

Karol Chwiesiuk is accused of sharing pictures of himself inside the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon. He is set to go to trial May 1.