The chief of staff to Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, has been charged with carrying a pistol into a House office building in December 2025, court records show.

The incident surfaced publicly only this week after federal prosecutors moved against him nearly six months later.

Luis Angel Vega, a longtime Sessions aide, appeared Friday in D.C. Superior Court, where a judge released him without bail. He is charged with carrying a pistol outside the home without a license and carrying a firearm onto Capitol grounds, both District of Columbia offenses.

According to a Capitol Police affidavit obtained by CNN, officers screening bags at a House office building on Dec. 22 pulled a black pistol and ammunition from Vega's bag.

He was directed to lock the gun in his car and return for a second screening, which he cleared, and was allowed inside.

The Hill, citing the affidavit, reported the initial screening happened shortly before 6:30 a.m. and that Vega returned to the entrance in under five minutes after stowing the firearm.

In a follow-up phone interview a week later, Vega told a Capitol Police investigator he did not have a license to carry the pistol and had not registered it.

He also told the officer he typically enters the building alongside Sessions, who as a member of Congress is exempt from administrative screening, and hands his bag to the congressman to bring inside.

The affidavit identified Sessions only as "Witness 1" and described the morning as a break from that routine.

"The day of the offense was out of the ordinary in that Witness 1 entered the building separately from the defendant and the defendant forgot there was a pistol in his bag," the filing stated.

The U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C., declined Friday to explain why the charges were filed nearly six months after the encounter. Vega's next court date is set for June 10.

Sessions has not commented publicly.