Morgantown resident George Tanios, who is accused in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, has an 11:30 a.m. hearing Friday to determine the conditions of release while he awaits trial.
Federal appeals judges determined earlier this month that Tanios should be released on bond, and now a district judge will provide guidance on the conditions.
Lawyers for Tanios on Thursday submitted a motion with proposed conditions including home incarceration with electronic monitoring.
“Additionally, Mr. Tanios will not possess weapons of any type, will not use illegal drugs, and will surrender his passport to the United States Probation Office,” wrote lawyers for Tanios.
The lawyers for Tanios wrote that federal prosecutors do not currently oppose any of the proposed release conditions.
After 30 days, attorneys for Tanios are asking, the Morgantown man might petition the court to modify the release conditions so that he could go to work.
The appeals judges concluded a lower court order should be reversed and that the case should return to the district court level for Tanios’s release.
Tanios is accused of collaborating with longtime friend Julian Khater of New Jersey in assaulting U.S. Capitol police officers with pepperspray.
Tanios is accused of obtaining and carrying the pepperspray, and Khater is accused of spraying it at officers, causing them to be injured and resulting in a distraction that enabled others to breach a bike rack barrier outside the Capitol. One of the officers, Brian Sicknick, later died but a medical examiner ruled the chemical spray was not the direct cause.
Tanios and Khater are charged with nine counts including assaulting three officers with a deadly weapon. The charges are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Tanios has pleaded not guilty.
Tanios is the president of Morgantown’s Sandwich University, which advertises over-the-top foods. The photos that investigators used to identify him at the U.S. Capitol showed him wearing clothing with the logo for Sandwich University.
For months Tanios has been trying to be released from jail while awaiting trial, which could take place next year given the heavy load on the federal court system in the District of Columbia.
Federal judges had earlier concluded he should continue to be detained, so Tanios asked for their conclusions to be overturned by the U.S. Court Of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
“Mr. Tanios is a family-oriented business owner who traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend what he believed would be an extremely important political rally. It seemed exciting, different, interesting, and an opportunity to express his support for his political party in a meaningful way,” his lawyers wrote in his bond appeal.
“Naturally, as one may imagine, he regrets going down to the U.S. Capitol in the first place.”
In a short filing earlier this month, judges with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concluded Tanios does not represent a danger to the community.
“The record reflects that Tanios has no past felony convictions, no ties to any extremist organizations, and no post-January 6 criminal behavior that would otherwise show him to pose a danger to the community within the meaning of the Bail Reform Act,” the appeals judges wrote.
The appeals court rejected separate arguments that Khater should be let out of jail on bond.
The mob storming the U.S. Capitol disrupted the constitutional duty of counting Electoral College votes and prompted the evacuations of representatives, senators and Vice President Mike Pence. One woman was fatally shot while trying to climb into the chambers, three others died from “medical emergencies” and more than 100 police officers were injured.
Of the thousands of protesters in Washington, D.C., that day, about 800 went into the Capitol, police have said. More than 400 people have been charged so far.
West Virginians facing federal charges of entering the Capitol that day are former Parkersburg Councilman Eric Barber, former state Delegate Derrick Evans of Wayne County, who resigned after being charged, and college senior Gracyn Courtright of Hurricane.
Barber had a status hearing this week, and lawyers briefly described ongoing plea talks.
Courtright has a plea hearing next week.