A man charged with assisting in the chemical spraying of U.S. Capitol Police officers, including the now-deceased Brian Sicknick, during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors after striking a deal with prosecutors.
George Tanios, a 40-year-old West Virginia sandwich shop owner, pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and one count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, according to his plea deal. Tanios is due to be sentenced in December, per CNN. Guidelines call for up to a year in prison, though Tanios has already served five months, the Washington Post reported.
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Tanios admitted to bringing two cans of chemical spray to the Capitol, whereupon co-defendant Julian Khater reached into his bag, picked out a spray, and doused Sicknick and two colleagues on Jan. 6. They were seen in video footage “working together to assault law enforcement officers with an unknown chemical substance by spraying officers directly in the face and eyes,” according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint.
The two were previously charged with one count of conspiracy to injure an officer, three counts of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, one count of civil disorder, one count of obstructing or impeding an official proceeding, one count of physical violence on restricted grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon and resulting in significant bodily injury, and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct, act of physical violence on Capitol grounds, according to the Justice Department. Both had pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Tanios’s defense lawyer, L. Richard Walker, argued last July that his client “did not enter the Capitol building. Tanios did not damage property, and he did not assault anyone. … Tanios is not guilty, having no knowledge of an assault, no intent to commit an assault, and no agreement to harm anyone. The District Court erred in detaining Tanios. The Government failed to prove that Tanios is a danger to the community by clear and convincing evidence.”
Khater is set to appear in court Oct. 5, though prosecutors have offered him a plea deal of two felony counts of assaulting federal law enforcement, according to Axios.
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Sicknick died shortly after the Capitol riot at the age of 42. His death, which some originally attributed to the Capitol riot, was the result of natural causes after suffering strokes the day after the attack, according to the chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C. Neither Tanios nor Khater have been accused of causing Sicknick’s death.
