Two arrested in assault on slain Capitol cop Brian Sicknick -

Two former New Jersey men have been arrested for assaulting US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the January attack on Congress, authorities said Monday.

Julian Khater, the 32-year-old former co-owner of a chain of health-food cafes, and childhood pal George Tanios, 39, a businessman who calls himself the “Sandwich Nazi,” are accused of discharging bear spray into the faces of three officers, including Sicknick.

Authorities have yet to charge anyone with Sicknick’s death. Officials say they are still waiting on a toxicology report and haven’t determined an exact cause of death in the case.

But a federal investigator and another law-enforcement source told The Associated Press that evidence suggests Sicknick may have ingested a chemical, possibly bear spray, during the riots, which could have contributed to his death.

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For now, Khater and Tanios are facing nine criminal charges for assaulting Sicknick, another Capitol Police officer and a Washington, DC, cop by spraying them with the noxious substance, the feds said.

Khater was allegedly wearing a blue knit “Trump” beanie as he and Tanios stood near some metal bike racks, where Sicknick and other cops were standing guard, on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol around 2:14 p.m. Jan. 6., the day of the deadly riots.

“Give me that bear s–t,” Khater can be heard on video as he grabbed Tanios’s backpack, according to the indictment.

Tanios allegedly replied, “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet… It’s still early.”

Khater was then apparently hit by a substance himself, griping, “They just f–king sprayed me” — before he was seen in the footage minutes later discharging a can of what appeared to be bear spray into the cops’ faces, authorities said.

The three injured officers were temporarily blinded and left incapacitated for more than 20 minutes — with one of them, a female cop, suffering scarring under her eyes for weeks, according to court papers.

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Video has allegedly shown Sicknick being hit in the head with a fire extinguisher during the rioting, also, but the law-enforcement sources said authorities are now focused on the evidence that suggests the spray may have contributed to Sicknick’s death.

The cop died in a hospital the day after the riot.

The fallen officer was 42-year-old military vet and President Donald Trump supporter who was originally from East Brunswick, NJ — which is next to New Brunswick, where childhood pals Khater and Tanios grew up.

The two assault suspects were nailed by tipsters who recognized their mugs from surveillance video and cop bodycam footage that the FBI had put out in the days after the violence.

Tanios, the owner of the “Sandwich University’’ eatery in Morgantown, W. Va., refers to himself on social media as the “Sandwich Nazi.”

He was wearing a sweatshirt with his company’s logo on it at the time of the assault, authorities said.

The tipster who turned him in was a man who had been accusing Tanios of embezzling $435,000 from him during their former business partnership, court papers show.

Tanios was picked up at his home in Morgantown, where West Virginia University is located.

The indictment included a social-media photo of him posting in front of a Trump 2020 flag.

Meanwhile, Khater, who lives in State College, Pa., was nabbed after getting off a flight from Newark Airport in Newark, NJ, the feds said.

A former coworker at a restaurant in State College, home of Penn State University, turned him in, according to court documents.

Khater’s LinkedIn profile said he co-owned a health-food Frutta Bowls franchise before it closed it in June, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing the now-defunct post.

The men briefly appeared by video link in federal court Monday. They were ordered held until they receive more extensive hearings regarding their detention while awaiting trial.

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