Thread by @ZoeTillman

A federal mag. judge in West Virginia is hearing arguments this morning on whether to keep George Tanios — one of two men charged with assaulting Officer Brian Sicknick at the Capitol — in detention pending trial.

Previously: buzzfeednews.com/article/davidm…

Tanios's lawyer had objected to the govt's decision not to put an FBI agent involved in the case on the stand; the judge heard brief arguments about that and overruled the objection, finding govt could proceed by proffer. So they're just starting arguments on the merits now

AUSA showed video from Jan. 6 that the govt says records Khater asking Tanios, "Give me that bear shit" and Tanios replying, "Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet." The video was choppy, at least on my screen, and it's hard to hear w/ crowd noise, but believe I caught "bear shit"

Because of court rules I can't share any screengrabs or recordings from this hearing, but the zoom info to watch it live is public: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2051…

The AUSA showed video of Sicknick and other officers being sprayed (allegedly by Khater), but so far has not addressed the fact that Sicknick later died - the charging docs in this case don't link the chemical spray assault alleged here with his death

We just saw two videos of what the AUSA says show Sicknick trying to deal with the effects of the chemical spray in the minutes after — we see him mostly alone on a platform outside the Capitol, pacing and rubbing his face

AUSA said that investigators found an empty canister of chemical spray during a search of Khater's house and found canisters of bear spray and another chemical spray at Tanios's house

AUSA says that after being arrested, Khater gave a statement and said that he and Tanios traveled to DC together, stayed at the same hotel, took a Lyft to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and that Tanios carried a backpack for the both of them

AUSA says they spoke to the manager of a firearms store who said Tanios came in on Jan. 5 and bought cans of bear spray and pepper spray, and had asked what he was allowed to carry into DC; the store manager provided the govt with a receipt of the purchase

AUSA is also arguing that George Tanios is a flight risk, saying the govt learned from a tipster that his family planned to try to get him to Lebanon, where they have ties, if he's released. Tanios' lawyer objects to this, the judge overrules and will hear evidence

The defense had George Tanios's mother testify, she denied the govt's allegation that she told someone she planned to get Tanios out of the country if he is released. She was emotional throughout her testimony, insisted Tanios is "not bad," said they didn't talk politics

The AUSA declined to cross-examine Tanios's mother (fwiw, the AUSA didn't specify which member of Tanios's family had allegedly talked about trying to get him to Lebanon if he's released, per their tipster)

One thing I didn't get into an earlier tweet - the AUSA also said that when Tanios went into the firearm store where he ended up buying bear spray and the other chemical spray, he'd also asked if he could bring a pepper ball shooter into DC and was told he could not

Tanios's lawyers are presenting a series of character witnesses along with his mother, including the mother of his three children/long-time partner and his friends

Tanios's lawyers ask to call the FBI agent who submitted affidavit to testify. Govt objects, saying they didn't put the agent on as a witness, so the defense can't call to cross-examine. Defense says they should be able to question the agent to test weight of evidence submitted

The judge agrees to make the agent available for questioning by the defense, he's appearing remotely by video, appears to be sitting in a car

Defense lawyer is walking the agent through the steps of the investigation, and at one point asks if he interviewed the three officers who were injured. The agent pauses for a beat and replies that because one is "deceased" (Sicknick) he only interviewed two of the officers

Defense asks what the evidence is that Khater and Tanios conspired to injure police. Agent replies video showed them "working together," says that when Khater participated in a post-arrest interview, he didn't describe them planning to injure police

AUSA reiterates objection to the defense being allowed to question FBI agent when the govt has opted to proceed by proffer and not put on the agent to testify. Judge says he'll give defense some leeway, but is prepared to cut him off

The judge is now attempting to cut off the defense questioning the FBI agent as the lawyer starts to ask again about the evidence supporting the individual counts in the indictment against Tanios and if he knew what Khater intended to do; judge says this is not a trial/discovery

Defense lawyer (Richard Walker of the federal public defender office in Clarksburg, WV) disputes that he's trying to treat this like the trial, says because Tanios is unlikely to get a trial anytime soon given # of cases, they'll fight pretrial detention at every step if needed

Walker is arguing with the judge again about being able to question the FBI agent at a level of detail that goes along with jury instructions for the counts that Tanios is charged with. This is getting messy, with the judge saying Walker can keep asking Qs, but with limits

FBI agent is done. Basically, what we heard from him is that the evidence of a conspiracy is the video of the two men from the scene, although the agent notes the investigation is ongoing. Also it's not clear if anyone used the bear spray, the other chemical spray was deployed

AUSA is now arguing, says that the evidence also shows Tanios was on the phone with Khater around the time he was in the firearms store buying bear spray and other chemical spray, which also goes to bolster the govt's theory that they planned in advance

Tanios's lawyer Beth Gross argues the evidence against Tanios is too limited to support keeping him in jail pending trial, and based on interpretation of snippets of video. Prosecutor counters that all of this went to the grand jury, which returned an indictment

Now: Judge orders detention for Tanios — "my obligation is to the safety of our community and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything play out in a way that was more dangerous to our community and I have no question that, in your own way, Mr. Tanios, you chose to be part of that"

Judge spoke about how Jan. 6 was the result of a culture "radicalized by hate" + refusal to accept election, and said he couldn't understand what drew people, and that worried him. Noted evidence of stop to buy chemical spray: "This isn't a weekend visit to see the blossms in DC"

Judge noted rioters moved past the police lines at the Capitol: "Why would you not just turn the other way and go home? ... The fact that all of them weren’t thinking about that is just frightening to me. And that was a choice. Choices all along the way."

Judge said he understood how hard detention (this is pretrial detention, not sentencing) is on families, and even if this was a one-time event for Tanios, there are people serving life for one-time incidents for things that might seem out of character to their family

Before announcing his decision, the judge quoted MLK: "...the real danger confronting civilization today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness"

tldr: A fed magistrate judge in WV has ordered pretrial detention for George Tanios, charged with conspiracy + assaulting police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, incl. Officer Brian Sicknick. Tanios's lawyer said they would challenge that decision before a fed district judge in DC

Story: A judge today ordered one of two men charged with assaulting police during the Capitol insurrection, incl. Officer Brian Sicknick, to stay in jail pending trial. The case hasn't revealed any concrete information about how Sicknick died. buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

Sicknick's death barely came up during today's hearing; the lawyers mostly talked around it. But at one point a defense lawyer asked an FBI agent if he'd interviewed the three officers allegedly assaulted, and the agent said no, since one was "deceased" buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…