WASHINGTON – George Tanios, one of two men charged with conspiracy to assault police officers during the January 6 uprising, including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, will remain behind bars pending trial, a judge ruled Monday.
Tanios and his co-accused, Julian Khater, are accused of assaulting Sicknick and two other officers at the Capitol. So far, the case has not provided any more concrete information on how Sicknick died. Khater is accused of using a chemical spray and coordinating with Tanios to bring it to the Capitol that day. The two men are not charged with the murder of Sicknick, and the indictment documents do not link the alleged assault to his death. U.S. Capitol police have not released a cause of death.
Sicknick’s death was barely mentioned during the detention trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wagner did not raise this issue as part of her arguments to keep Tanios in jail. One of the only references to the officer’s death was when L. Richard Walker, Tanios’ lawyer, an FBI agent involved in the investigation, asked if he had an interview with the three officers with whom Tanios and Khater charged that they conspired to interrogate assault. After a short pause, the agent replied that he only interviewed two of them because one was ‘deceased’.
U.S. District Magistrate Michael John Aloi has announced that he will immediately detain Tanios behind bars pending trial after hearing arguments and tearful testimony from his family. The judge said he believed the Capitol uprising was the result of a culture radicalized by hatred and a refusal to accept the outcome of the presidential election. He said he did not understand what attracted anyone to take part in such an event, and it worried him ‘deeply’ when he refused to let Tanios go home while his case was pending.
“My duty is to commit to the safety of our community, and I do not think I have ever seen anything more dangerous to our community,” Aloi said. “I have no doubt that you, in your own way, Mr. Tanios, have chosen to be a part of it.”
Walker indicated that they would appeal against Aloi’s decision, and he sometimes clashed with the judge over how much he could use Monday’s detention hearing to investigate the government’s evidence. Tanios, who owns a sandwich shop in Morgantown, West Virginia, was arrested on March 14. He has made his first court appearance in his home country, but his lawyers can now appeal the case to a federal judge in Washington, DC, where the case – along with the rest of January 6 – will be heard.
Wagner testified Monday that Tanios entered a firearms store in West Virginia on Jan. 5 and bought two cans of bear spray and two containers of pepper spray. According to her, a store manager told investigators that Tanios asked to buy a pepper ball launcher, but the manager said he could not legally transport it to Washington, DC. She said investigators found an empty container with chemical spray at Khater’s home and two containers of bear spray and a container with another chemical spray in Tanios’ home. Wagner also said the government had evidence that Tanios was with Khater over the phone when he entered the store to buy the sprays.
Wagner also showed videos from the Capitol on January 6, including one that, according to the government, shows Khater asking Tanios for ‘that bear shit’ and Tanios saying no because it was ‘still early’. Another video shows an officer in a blue uniform, who identified Wagner as Sicknick, walking around rubbing his face in a mostly deserted area in front of the Capitol building. The officers were temporarily blinded and could not perform their duties, Wagner said; one reported that she had scabies under her eyes and needed treatment from a dermatologist three weeks after the uprising.
The government also argued that Tanios posed a flight risk; Wagner said a tipster said Tanios’ family planned to try to bring him to Lebanon, where they have ties, if he is released. However, Wagner did not share more information about the claim, and Tanios’ mother denied it when questioned by one of his lawyers.
Wagner gave no evidence from the FBI agent who signed the statement supporting the arrest of Tanios. She objected when Walker argued that he should be allowed to question the agent. The judge granted Walker’s request, but then cut him off after he began asking a series of questions about the evidence supported by every count charged with Tanios. A federal grand jury returned a charge of ten counts on March 19th.
Tanios’ attorneys presented several character witnesses, including his mother, his longtime partner, and the mother of his three young children, his sister, and his friends. At the end of the trial, Aloi said that he took into account how difficult the detention of a person’s family was, adding: ‘The context of everything that happened on the day and before is what is in me inform decision making, and I think should. He cites government evidence of Tanios buying cans of chemical spray, saying there was “no good reason” to bring it to the Capitol.
“It’s not a weekend visit to see the blossoms in DC,” he said.
The judge delivered a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. quoted on how the greatest danger to civilization is an ‘atomic bomb lying in the hearts and souls of men, which can explode to the greatest hatred and to the most harmful selfishness.’ He wonders why Tanios and Khater do not turn around and go home as soon as they see rioters trying to attack a police line in front of the Capitol.
‘The fact that not everyone thought about it is frightening to me. And it was a choice. Choices along the way, “the judge said.
He went on to say: ‘I’m struggling because I do not know if it represents who you are, Mr Tanios … but what is it that is causing the behavior? And all I can think about is that there is something that causes such hatred, such irrational behavior, such a desire to attack the country and officers in such ways that give me little confidence or it is going to stop. ‘
Khater is in jail pending an as yet unplanned detention trial.