The Department of Justice has reached a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan 6 rioter who was unjustifiably shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer’s pistol shot, despite her being unarmed and posing no threat of significant harm to anyone in the vicinity. The news comes weeks after President Trump promised to look into the Department of Justice’s effort to defeat the claim. As of a few months ago, the case had been expected to reach trial phase in July.
On Friday, lawyers representing the DOJ and Babbitt’s family notified a Washington DC judge that they’d reached an agreement in principle. When filing suit early last year, Babbitt’s surviving loved ones sought $30 million in compensation for her being killed by officer Michael Byrd. The value of the pending settlement has not yet been revealed, and family attorneys say precise details are still being worked out. Beyond a potential monetary reward, there’s also the question of to what extent the federal government will acknowledge Byrd’s wrongdoing. Babbitt family lawyer Robert Sticht said he expects a signed agreement within three weeks.
Byrd killed then-35-year-old Babbitt as she attempted to climb through a broken window that was part of an interior doorway close to the House chamber. Though the unarmed, 5’2″, 115-pound Babbitt posed no imminent threat of inflicting death or serious injury as she awkwardly navigated the narrow space — with a furniture barricade still ahead of her — Boyd opted against using any type of nonlethal force, and instead shot her from an ambush position, killing her with a bullet that perforated her trachea and lung.
In a softball interview, Byrd told NBC News, “I showed the utmost courage on January 6…I know that day I saved countless lives.” To the contrary, he’s the only person who took a life that day. The family’s 32-page complaint alleged Byrd’s weapon-handling violated Capitol Police Policy, saying that he:
- Took it out of his holster before any proportionate threat had been presented
- Didn’t hold the weapon at “low ready,” and proceeded to point it at a variety of people who, like Babbitt, posed no immediate threat
- Put his finger inside the trigger guard, “tapping it on and off the trigger for at least 14 seconds before he shot and killed Ashli.” A finger shouldn’t be put inside the guard until the officer has decided to fire the weapon
While it’s been little-publicized by major media or leftists who screech that Babbitt “got what she deserved,” Byrd had some serious disciplinary issues before Jan. 6, with some of the incidents involving the irresponsible handling and even firing of his weapon. Despite the damning facts of the case, leftists in and out of media have treated Byrd as a hero for fending off a nonexistent “insurrection.” The left’s reaction to the wrongful killing demonstrated a glaring double-standard on cop misconduct.
Byrd was not only officially cleared of wrongdoing, but promoted to the rank of captain in 2023. In a March interview, Newsmax’s Greg Kelly asked Trump how he felt about Byrd still being on duty, with a pay raise and higher authority. The president replied:
“I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to take a look at it. I’m going to look at that, too. His reputation was … I won’t even say; let’s find out about his reputation. We’re going to find out. But I watched that and I saw that. And by the way, she was killed, but nobody else was killed.”
He also vowed to look into the DOJ’s decision to fight Babbitt’s family in court:
“Well, I’ll look into that. I mean, you’re just telling me that for the first time, I haven’t heard that. I’m a big fan of Ashli Babbitt. And Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan. And she was innocently standing there; they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd. And a man did something to her that was unthinkable when he shot her. And I think it’s a disgrace. I’m going to look into that. I did not know that.”
President Trump addresses the latest on the case of Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, rips the police shooting, the overall treatment of now-pardoned defendants, and the actions of the former House J6 select committee. pic.twitter.com/kPXPyGVuJT
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) March 26, 2025
Hours after being inaugurated in January, Trump granted clemency to some 1,600 Americans who’d either been convicted or charged out of their actions on Jan 6. The move combined both full pardons and sentence commutations. In March, Trump entertained the possibility of a compensation fund for all of them.
Cover your ears: the left is about to blow its collective stack in irrational indignation that the government will compensate the family of a dead woman who was clearly on the receiving end of wildly excessive force.
What If Ashli Babbitt Was Black?
If the scenarios were reversed and Ashli Babbitt was a black woman at a BLM protest/riot and Michael Byrd was a white police officer, how would the left have responded to the killing of an unarmed black woman on video? pic.twitter.com/uXq9b00ozx
— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) May 2, 2025
Tyler Durden
Sun, 05/04/2025 – 13:25
