In a new lawsuit against former President Donald Trump seeking damages of at least $10 million, the longtime partner of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick contends that Sicknick’s death was a “direct and foreseeable consequence” of Trump’s actions leading up to and on Jan. 6.
Sandra Garza, also the representative of Sicknick’s estate, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the second anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol.
She has also named two rioters in the lawsuit: George Tanios and Julian Elie Khater. Khater pleaded guilty to assaulting police, including Sicknick, last September. Khater, from New Jersey, doused Sicknick and several other officers faces with pepper spray. Khater has not yet been sentenced but faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. After striking a plea agreement with prosecutors, that sentence may be reduced to six to eight years. Tanios, who was also initially charged with assaulting Sicknick, copped a plea agreement, too. The West Virginia man pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges. He will be sentenced next week.
“The horrific events of Jan. 6, 2021, including Officer Sicknick’s tragic, wrongful death, were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the defendants’ unlawful actions. As such, the defendants are responsible for the injury and destruction that followed,” Garza’s lawsuit states.
Sicknick, who is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery, died on Jan. 7, 2021. A medical examiner ruled that the 42-year-old police officer died of natural causes after suffering two strokes. Those strokes, the examiner found, were connected to everything that “transpired” on Jan. 6.
Garza argues that Trump deliberately undermined the 2020 election for months and whipped people into a frenzy over his claims of a “stolen” or “rigged” election. Pointing to a catalog of posts on Twitter where Trump screeched about the “biggest SCAM in our nation’s history,” Garza contends that Trump is not just responsible for the violence at the Capitol broadly, but specifically for her partner's death.
Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, when he urged his followers to come to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 for a “big protest,” was a directive, Garza said.
His followers understood it was a call to violence, she claimed, noting a series of messages that were posted online on pro-Trump forums after he sent the tweet.
Some of those messages Garza highlighted: “Trump Tweet. Daddy Says Be in DC on Jan. 6.”
Another read: “Will be open carrying and so will my friends. We have been waiting for Trump to say the word. There is [sic] not enough cops in DC to stop what is coming.”
Another was even more blatant. “Well, shit. We’ve got our marching order bois.”
When Trump took the dais at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, she said, he gave the crowd “permission to break the rules,” Garza alleges, exacerbating the violence that would befall Sicknick and other officers.
“As the crowd chanted ‘Fight for Trump,’ defendant Trump responded, “we will not them silence your voices. We’re not gonna let it happen.’ Defendant Trump gave the people, some of whom he knew had brought firearms and other weapons with them, permission to break the rules. He told them that ‘when you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules,” Garza’s attorney, Matthew Kaiser, wrote.
To support her claim, Garza has highlighted many of the conclusions reached by the Select Committee to Investigate the Attack on the U.S. Capitol in its final report. There is overriding evidence that shows Trump was the central cause of Jan. 6, she notes, quoting the final report.
None of the events that day would have occurred if not for Trump.
Garza v Trump by Daily Kos on Scribd
Sicknick is receiving the Presidential Citizen’s Medal posthumously on Friday as the nation commemorates the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He is one of 12 people who will receive the honor. It is one of the highest honors the president can bestow on a civilian and represents “exemplary contributions to our democracy.”
Five police officers died in the fallout of Jan. 6 including Sicknick. The other officers include: Jeffrey Smith, Kyle DeFreytag, and Gunther Hashida of the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood. All died by suicide.
Over 140 police officers were injured on Jan. 6.
Last month Congress honored all of the police departments that held the line on Jan. 6 with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest-ranking award Congress can give. In legislation that had to be passed and approved by the president in order to award the medals, President Joe Biden specifically highlighted Sicknick’s service.
His family, including his mother, brother, and father, attended the service at the Capitol in December. Sicknick’s family did not shake hands with Republican lawmakers at the event. As noted by CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane, Sicknick's brother Ken said the reason for the snub was “self-explanatory.”
“People like Louie Gohmert who presented the American flag that was flown over the Capitol to a Jan. 6 rioter and told them they were a patriot, it's disgusting. It takes away everything my brother’s done. Takes away the heroism my brother showed,” he said.
Garza could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.