Feds say suspect in Capitol officer’s assault would flee to Lebanon if released, reports say – NJ.com

One of the suspects charged with assaulting police officers at the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, including New Jersey native Brian Sicknick, who died the next day, will remain jailed pending trial, a federal judge in West Virginia ruled Monday.

Many of the initial hearings for suspects charged in the Capitol attack are basically formalities before the case is transferred to Washington, D.C., where they will all be prosecuted.

But the hearing for George Tanios, 39, went on for hours and featured testimony, tears and a trove of new details in the case against him and friend Julian Khater, 32.

Tanios and Khater are accused of assaulting three officers during the riot. The FBI says they were together at the riot and Khater unleashed bear spray on the officers from a can he retrieved from Tanios’ backpack.

Both suspects originally lived in New Jersey and grew up together in the New Brunswick area, as part of the Lebanese community. Sicknick, 42, grew up in South River, about 15 minutes away.

Tanios moved to Morgantown, West Virginia about 15 years ago and runs a sandwich shop, Sandwich U., that targets local college students.

In arguing to keep Tanios detained, federal prosecutors said in court that the FBI was tipped that Tanios’ mother told someone that if he’s released, his family will get him to Lebanon, where they have family, WTRF-TV reported.

Maggie Tanios testified via Zoom, apparently from New Jersey, and denied the allegation, the station reported. “Who tell you that? This is my country (United States). We are Americans! No, of course not.”

Crying at times, Maggie Tanios described leaving Lebanon after losing family members in a civil war and said she raised George and his siblings as church-goers and sent him to a private, Catholic school, while the family ran a Lebanese restaurant in New Brunswick, the station reported.

George Tanios was at the “wrong place at the wrong time,” Maggie Tanios testified.

Not likely, prosecutors say.

George Tanios bought two canisters of pepper spray and two cans of bear spray at a West Virginia store on Jan. 5, and asked a store clerk if he could take a pepperball pistol the store was selling to Washington, D.C. for the Trump rally, news reports say. The clerk said no.

The judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael John Aloi, was outspoken from the bench, saying the events of Jan. 6 “shook him” and that George Tanios had choices, like staying at home with his fiancee and three young children, or visiting his mother in New Jersey that day, WDTV-TV reported.

“Mr. Tanios, you chose to be part of that. I cannot accept anyone who doesn’t respond to law enforcement in a peaceful way,” Aloi said.

Meanwhile, records show Khater was transferred Monday from the Essex County jail to the custody of federal authorities. He appeared in court last week in New Jersey, following his arrest March 14 at Newark Liberty Airport, where he’d just stepped off a plane.

Khater went to college in New Jersey and worked at a number of businesses before running Frutta Bowls franchises in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and recently in State College, Pennsylvania – a location that closed last summer. He’s apparently living in Somerset now, according to his LinkedIn page which said he was “looking for new and exciting opportunities.”

Both men have been indicted on 10 crimes accusing them of assaulting officers and being disruptive at the Capitol. They are not charged in Sicknik’s death, the cause of which has not been made public.

On Sunday night, Michael Sherwin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., said on 60 Minutes that murder charges remain an option in the Sicknick investigation.

“If the medical examiner determines that his death was directly related to the bear spray would you imagine murder charges at that point?” host Scott Pelley asked Sherwin.

“If evidence directly relates that chemical to his death, yeah. We have causation, we have a link. Yes. In that scenario, correct, that’s a murder case,” Sherwin responded.

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com