Comment One of two men charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 chemical spray attack on three police officers at the U.S. Capitol, including Brian D. Siknik, is set to plead guilty to reduced charges on Wednesday, court officials said. West Virginia sandwich shop owner George Tanios was charged by criminal information Wednesday morning on two counts of trespassing and disorderly conduct on limited grounds on Capitol Hill, reduced from a previous 10-count indictment that included felony counts of rioting, assaulting law enforcement officers and obstructing congressional certification of his election victory President Biden in 2020. A hearing for Tanio is set for Wednesday at 2 p.m. in federal court in Washington. A claim isn’t final until it’s accepted by a judge, and Tanios can change his mind at any time until then. The case of Tanius and co-defendant Julian Eli Hutter is among the most high-profile prosecutions since Jan. 6, as both men were charged with assaulting Capitol Police Officer Siknik, 42. Siknik was injured while trying to hold back a violent crowd on the Capitol’s west porch, collapsed hours later and died the next day of natural causes, officials said. Neither Tanios nor Khater allegedly caused Sicknick’s death. It could not be immediately determined whether Tanios would plead guilty in a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. In April, defense attorneys for both co-defendants said they were working on plea deals with the government after successfully asking U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan to postpone the July trial to allow more time for talks. Khater remains on trial on October 5. More than 840 suspects charged in January 6 Capitol riot Attorneys for Tanios, of Morgantown, W.Va., and Khater, of State College, Pa., did not immediately comment. “We don’t normally comment beyond public filings and statements in court, and we don’t have any comment,” said Bill Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which oversees the prosecution of riot cases on Capitol Hill. Khater and Tanios, who ran smoothie and sandwich shops in their respective college towns, were arrested in March 2021 and pleaded not guilty to the attacks on Sicknick, a fellow Capitol police officer and a D.C. officer. Khater has since been jailed, but an appeals court ordered in August that Tanios be released, saying he had “no prior felony convictions, no ties to extremist organizations, and no criminal behavior after January 6 that would otherwise show him to be a danger to the community”. Battle for West Terrace: Capitol riot charges reveal details of Jan. 6 police attacks Hogan had earlier ordered both men held pending trial, saying government videos of the attacks on the three officers showed a degree of premeditation and future dangerousness. “These two gentlemen are law abiding, respected people in the community and it makes it very difficult for the court to come to this conclusion, but they still committed this attack on uniformed police officers. I can’t find a way around it,” Hogan said at the time. Prosecutors in detention hearings alleged that Khater sprayed a canister that Tanios had purchased and carried into the Capitol in his backpack, deploying it at close range against Sicknick, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and a D.C. police officer identified as B. Chapman by police. line, weakening them. “Give me that bear…” Hutter allegedly told Tanio in the video recorded nine minutes earlier at 2:14 p.m. on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where Siknik and other officers stood guard behind metal bike racks, according to charging papers. “Wait, wait, not yet, not yet… it’s still early,” Tanios reportedly replied. Tanios’ attorney, Elizabeth Gross, argued that he was 30 feet away from Khater when he sprayed the officers and did not aid or abet any crime. Sicknick suffered two strokes after being at the Capitol that day, officials said. The medical examiner said an autopsy found no evidence that Sicknick suffered an allergic reaction to chemical irritants. There was also no evidence of internal or external injuries, the medical examiner said.
