On January 6, 2021, at least three Capitol Police officers, including Officer Brian Sicknick, were attacked with chemical spray outside the Capitol.
One of the two men previously accused of the attack entered a guilty plea to less serious misdemeanour charges on Wednesday.
At sentencing, the Justice Department consented to dismiss the more serious allegations brought against him.
George Tanios, a resident of Morgantown, West Virginia, admits to breaking the law to enter the Capitol grounds and was disruptive during the attack.
He made no admissions about any behaviour with law enforcement personnel.
Although prosecutors stated they will want a lesser punishment, he now most certainly faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Tanios and his co-defendant Julian Khater were first detained after the attack and accused with several offences, including attacking police officers while brandishing a deadly weapon.
The D.C. medical examiner’s office reported last year that Sicknick passed away from natural causes a day after defending the Capitol during the assault on January 6.
Before, it was thought that Sicknick passed away from wounds acquired during the riot.
According to a report summary from the chief medical examiner’s office, he had “acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis” and ultimately passed away from strokes.
In court on Wednesday, the prosecution disclosed that it had recently offered Khater a plea agreement under which he would admit to two charges of attacking police officers with a hazardous weapon in exchange for the recommendation of a shorter jail term.
Khater’s lawyer informed the judge that he had to discuss the situation with his client, who is still in custody and must make a decision by the deadline of August 17 set by the prosecution.
His response to CBS News’ request for comment was delayed.
Investigators said that surveillance and body camera footage showed Khater and Tanios cooperating to attack law officers with chemical spray and destroy bike rack barricades that were guarding the Capitol building in their initial court filings.
Since then, CBS News has acquired and examined that video.
At the time of the initial accusations, authorities claimed that open-source video of the assault showed Khater approaching Tanios and yelling, “Give me that bear s***” and “They just f*****g sprayed me.”
Khater previously entered a not guilty plea to the accusations brought against him, and he is scheduled to go on trial in October, however his lawyer said they hoped to settle the issue before trial.
Beth Gross, Tanios’ public defender, stated in a statement: “The parties in this case exerted great effort to avoid trial by reaching a fair and just conclusion.
The suggested misdemeanour charges more accurately depict George Tanios’s restricted conduct on January 6, 2021, outside the U.S. Capitol.”
The punishment for Tanios is scheduled for December.