Chicago police officer charged in Jan. 6 attack at Capitol | WTOP

A Chicago police officer charged with breaching the U.S. Capitol and entering a senator’s office during the Jan. 6 insurrection texted photos of himself inside the building while wearing a police department sweatshirt after telling someone he was going to Washington “to save the nation.”

Karol Chwiesiuk, 29, was arrested Friday and faces five misdemeanor counts, including entering a restricted building, disrupting government business and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds with the intent to impede a congressional proceeding.

Prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint that Chwiesiuk was among a mob of people who broke into and damaged the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat. They also say that days before he traveled to Washington to attend a rally supporting then-President Donald Trump, Chwiesiuk said in a text to a friend that he was going “to save the nation” and was “Busy planning how to (expletive) up commies.” He later sent photos of himself inside the Capitol, according to prosecutors.

Chwiesiuk was on medical leave from the police department at the time he traveled to Washington for the attack, the complaint states. Along with text messages, he also sent photos of himself inside and outside the Capitol. In them, Chwiesiuk is grinning and wearing a sweatshirt with a Chicago Police Department emblem underneath an unzipped coat.