The family of Ashli Babbitt is reportedly set to receive nearly $5 million as part of a settlement with Donald Trump’s administration more than four years after she was fatally shot while climbing through a broken glass door separating members of Congress from a Trump-supporting mob.
Babbitt was wrapped in an American flag when she tried to crawl through a broken window leading to a barricaded lobby inside the House of Representatives on January 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the halls of Congress as lawmakers certified the results of the 2020 election.
She was hoisted up, an officer on the other side fired a single shot, and Babbitt fell to the ground.
A court filing earlier this month reported a settlement had been reached after the family filed a $30 million lawsuit against the government. The terms are not public, and it is not clear whether a settlement includes an acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
The settlement figure was reported byThe Washington Post. Outgoing U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger confirmed the figure to CBS News.
“I told them I was extremely disappointed, and I disagreed with the Department of Justice’s decision to settle this lawsuit,” he told the network Monday.
The Independent has requested comment from the Justice Department and attorneys for the Babbitt family.
The death of Babbitt — an Air Force veteran and QAnon proponent who supported Trump’s baseless “stolen” election narrative — emerged as a martyr-like figure among the president’s supporters, while Trump has repeatedly referred to her as a “patriot” as the president and his allies rewrite the history of January 6 as a heroic protest.
Last month, Trump said he would “look into” whether the government should settle with her family.
“I’m a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, OK, 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,” he told Newsmax.
“And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it’s a disgrace,” he said. “I’m going to look into that.”
Trump also pledged he would “look at” at the government’s decision to drop a case against Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police lieutenant who shot Babbitt. In April 2021, the Justice Department announced prosecutors were not pursuing criminal charges against Byrd after determining that the shooting was lawful.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” he told Newsmax. “I’m going to look at that too. His reputation was — I won’t even say. Let’s find out about his reputation, OK? We’re going to find out.”
Her family’s lawsuit claims “her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby.”
“Ashli posed no threat to the safety of anyone,” according to the complaint.
The Justice Department’s investigation in 2021 did not find sufficient evidence to prove Babbitt’s civil rights were violated and determined that Byrd had reason to believe he was firing in self-defense or in defense of lawmakers who were huddled inside and forced to evacuate.
Another investigation from Capitol Police determined the officer’s actions “potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where members and staff were steps away.”
In footage from the Capitol attack, when thousands of Trump’s supporters stormed the halls of Congress, Babbitt can be seen trying to climb through a smashed window while a mob surrounded the Speaker’s Lobby.
Babbitt “unlawfully entered the Capitol,” government lawyers during the Biden administration wrote in court documents in response to the family’s lawsuit.
“She made her way to the east doors of the Speaker’s Lobby situated immediately behind the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives, the site of Joint Sessions of Congress,” they continued. “Although officers had barricaded the Speaker’s Lobby doors with heavy furniture, demonstrators broke through the glass panels of the lobby doors and matching windows … on either side of the doors.”
Trump recently mentioned Babbitt while comparing the vandalization of Tesla dealerships to the Capitol attack, claiming that the damage to properties with Elon Musk’s company was far worse.
“You didn’t have anything like that on Jan. 6, which is sort of amazing because on Jan. 6, the Democrats were talking,” Trump said. “Nobody was killed other than a very beautiful young woman, Ashli, Ashli Babbitt. Nobody was killed.”
At least seven people died in connection with the attack, according to a bipartisan Senate report. One rioter died of a heart attack, another was crushed under a stampede of rioters, and another died of a stroke. At least five law enforcement officers died in the days and weeks after the riot, and more than 150 officers were injured.
More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in connection with the mob’s assault, fueled by Trump’s ongoing false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Trump issued “full pardons” for virtually all of them on the night of his inauguration, and he commuted the sentences of 14 convicted members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to time served.
The administration has also targeted prosecutors involved with January 6 prosecutions and moved to identify FBI agents involved in the investigation while scrubbing evidence and public statements about the attack from government websites.
