The U.S. Justice Department has been very busy charging more than 300 people in connection with the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of people who forcibly entered the building to disrupt Congress from certifying the electoral college votes in the presidential election.
On Monday, the Justice Department charged another two suspects whom it alleged worked together to spray a chemical irritant on three Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6, one of whom later died.
Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios are facing multiple counts, including assaulting police with a deadly weapon, after investigators said they sprayed at least three officers with an unidentified, but powerful, chemical agent.
One of those officers, Brian Sicknick, was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day. The cause of death has still not been released but in a statement by Capitol Police Sicknick died “line of duty.”
Khater and Tanios are not charged with killing Sicknick.
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According to the complaint, the FBI said the two men “appeared to time the deployment of chemical substances to coincide with other rioters’ efforts to forcibly remove the bike rack barriers that were preventing the rioters from moving closer to the Capitol building.”
Khater, 32, of State College, Pennsylvania, was arrested as he disembarked from an airplane at Newark Airport in New Jersey. Tanios, 39, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was arrested at his residence in West Virginia. Both are scheduled to make initial appearances in court later this afternoon.
In video footage, investigators say Khater walked toward Tanios and said: “Give me that bear sh*t” and reached into a backpack Tanios was carrying. Tanios then replied: “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet…It’s still early.”
The complaint said the officers were temporarily blinded and disabled by the substance and “needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers.”
Five people, including Sicknick, died in connection with the deadly attack.
In court filings last week, the Justice Department revealed it intends to file charges against more than 100 additional defendants, in what it described as the most complex investigation it has ever handled.
There is no defense for the break in at the Capitol and this officers death is certainly a tragedy. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Justice Department would invest as much time and effort into those who destroyed city after city in riots that continue to this day, where other government buildings were vandalized and people have been terrorized.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Article Source : thefederalistpapers.org
