U.S. Capitol riot defendant in talks to settle case - filing

[March 29, 2022]  By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A man accused of attacking at least three police officers with a chemical irritant during the riot at the Capitol last year asked a judge on Monday to postpone his June trial, signaling he was in talks about settling the case.

In a court filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, attorneys for Julian Khater wrote they have recently had "meaningful discussions with the government about a potential resolution of this matter" and felt hopeful this would "obviate the need for a trial."

The filing did not provide further details nor explicitly say that Khater might be willing to plead guilty to some of the charges.

Khater and George Pierre Tanios are facing multiple counts, including assaulting police with a deadly weapon. Investigators said they sprayed at least three U.S. Capitol and Washington, D.C. police officers with an unidentified but powerful chemical agent as President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.

The sun rises behind the U.S. Capitol in the morning ahead of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

One of those officers, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was later rushed to a hospital and died the next day.

Washington, D.C.'s chief medical examiner has since ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes following multiple strokes the day after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.

Sicknick was sprayed by rioters with a chemical substance around 2:20 p.m. on Jan. 6, and collapsed around 10 p.m. He died the following day at a local hospital.

Khater and Tanios are tentatively slated to go to trial on June 6.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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