A Chicago man was arrested this week on charges alleging he entered the U.S. Capitol with his father during the Jan. 6 riot and took photos of the mayhem while wearing a “Trump 2020″ flag as a cape.
Matthew Bokoski, 31, of the Uptown neighborhood, was arrested by federal agents Wednesday on a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington charging him with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering a restricted government building.
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He appeared at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain ordered him released on his own recognizance.
Bokoski was at least the 28th Illinoisan to have been charged so far in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the country’s history.
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Nationwide, nearly 800 people have been arrested as of this month in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on charges stemming from the Capitol breach, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
According to the complaint, Bokoski and his father, Bradley James Bokoski, 58, of Utah, traveled to Washington to hear President Donald Trump speak at a rally on Jan. 6 and then followed the crowd to the Capitol grounds, where at about 2:45 p.m. they entered through breached Senate Parliamentarian door.
The father and son walked down a hallway as part of a crowd before the group was met with a line of 10 to 15 police officers, according to the complaint. Both men later turned around and left after being in the building for about five minutes.
A tipster later sent the FBI screenshots of Matthew Bokoski’s Facebook page, including one post depicting a group of people inside the Capitol and a caption reading, “I was with my dad and walked right up the capital steps and inside with others,” the complaint stated.
“So only thing I’m guilty of is trespassing on federal property if you want to get down to it,” Bokoski wrote in another post the next day, according to the complaint. “I kept my distance from police and even thanked them for being out and making sure things don’t get insane.”
When FBI agents interviewed Matthew Bokoski in Chicago in January 2021, he allegedly admitted to entering the Capitol and posting the photos and videos on Facebook, according to the complaint.
Bokoski’s father, who was charged in the same complaint, was also arrested Wednesday near his home in Utah.
A court date for the case had not been set in Washington as of Thursday, and no lawyer was listed on the docket for either Matthew Bokoski or his father.
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