Man tied to officer’s attack pleads guilty to lesser charges

A West Virginia man initially charged with assaulting a police officer who died after defending the U.S. Capitol from a mob pleaded guilty on Wednesday to misdemeanor offenses that could allow him to avoid more jail time. A federal grand jury indicted George Pierre Tanios last year on felony charges that he conspired with a Pennsylvania man, Julian Elie Khater, to assault and injure Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with chemical spray during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021. In a court filing last year, they said there was no evidence that Tanios and Khater planned to use the spray in “an ultra-coordinated attack” on police. In a court filing last year, prosecutors said Tanios and Khater “carefully timed their assault on the officers to occur in tandem with an attack on the police barrier.” “This allowed the defendants to assault the officers while they were distracted, maximizing their chances of landing chemical spray in their eyes and thus incapacitating them to the point where the police line would break,” they wrote. U.S. Capitol Police said the medical examiner’s findings didn’t change the fact that Sicknick had died in the line of duty, “courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.” “The attack on our officers, including Brian, was an attack on our democracy,” police officials said in a statement last year.