Capitol riots music to ex-Finest’s ears: feds

A former NYPD officer was arrested for taking part in the Capitol riots — shaking a tambourine in the halls of government as other Trump supporters ran amok, the feds said Tuesday.

Sara Carpenter, 51, a Richmond Hill, Queens, resident, retired from the force in 2004. She worked as a spokeswoman for the NYPD in the 1990s, dealing with media inquiries.

She is not accused of committing any violent acts, but was charged with knowingly entering or remaining on restricted grounds as well as with disrupting the orderly conduct of government business.

Carpenter (inset) was arrested Tuesday morning and will be prosecuted, like other Capitol rioters, by the feds in Washington. She made her initial appearance in Brooklyn Federal Court and was released without bond.

“Any involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol is serous criminal conduct,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Hafetz at the arraignment. “That said ... her cooperation to date with the investigation, including her self-surrender today. .. are sufficient to ensure her return to court.”

An anonymous tipster informed the FBI that Carpenter had called a relative and admitted to being at the riots— adding that she had been tear-gassed and that she returned to New York City that evening.

When the feds went to interview her, Carpenter spoke willingly with them, admitted to being in the Capitol and gave them video she took from inside the building, according to prosecutors.

Surveillance footage from the Capitol Rotunda shows Carpenter shaking her tambourine and taking video. The feds later recovered, at her Queens home, the tambourine and the clothes that Carpenter was wearing at the Capitol, prosecutors said. Carpenter was on a reality-TV show in 2011 touting her invention, a “soft retractable leash with a pocket for waste bags,” according to TheBark.com. The website referred to her as a single mom and ex-cop.

“I had this idea to make a leash a little over a year ago, but it’s very expensive to do it yourself and it’s hard to get a patent,” Carpenter said about her invention, according to the Queens Chronicle.

Carpenter’s sister declined to comment when reached by the Daily News.

Carpenter will appear by video next Monday at her Washington court date.