Ashli Babbitt's family to receive $5 million in settlement with Trump administration: Sources

[riversedge]

Source: abc news






Babbitt was killed during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
By Katherine Faulders and Alexander Mallin May 19, 2025, 1:47 PM



The Trump administration is set to pay out nearly $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter fatally shot during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

The settlement will resolve a $30 million suit brought by Babbitt's estate and the conservative group Judicial Watch alleging the Capitol Police officer who shot her as she attempted to breach a broken window of the House speaker's lobby was negligent in his duties.

The Washington Post first reported news on the settlement amount.
MORE: DOJ reaches agreement in principle to settle lawsuit brought by family of Ashli Babbitt

The Justice Department in April 2021 announced it had cleared U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting, after an investigation revealed no evidence he "did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber."

A separate investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police further found Byrd's actions were "lawful and within Department policy" and that he would not face internal discipline..........................

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-pay-5-million-settle-lawsuit-ashli/story?id=121959389

---

Well, gee, guess it is ok to break into a CLOSED Federal building {closed then because of the covid pandemic], break through barricades and windows and doors etc etc.




0:27
Ashli Babbitt’s death caught in competing narratives one year after Jan. 6ABC News' Linsey Davis reports on the varying narratives surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection and the death of Ashli Babbitt, a patriot to some and a domestic terrorist to others.

Link to tweet

[ImNotGod]

1. instead of suicide by cop its lotto by cop. nt

[riversedge]

2. Trump: "I'm a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, okay, and Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan,

I am surprised that Trumpy did not award the family BILLIONS!!



Trump has repeatedly cited Babbitt's death as part of his broader vocal support for rioters who stormed the Capitol seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump pardoned nearly all of the approximately 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack as one of his first acts in office, in a proclamation that described the Justice Department's investigation into the riot as "a grave national injustice."

Following the pardons, Manger said in a memo to Capitol Police that the move "let violent criminals who attacked police officers off the hook" and that such criminals "should be met with consequences, condemnation and accountability."

In March, Trump said in an interview with Newsmax that he wasn't aware of the ongoing lawsuit brought by Babbitt's family but promised he would "look into" it.

"I'm a big fan of Ashli Babbitt, okay, 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," Trump said. "And a man did something unthinkable to her when he shot her, and I think it's a disgrace. I'm going to look into that; I did not know that."
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-pay-5-million-settle-lawsuit-ashli/story?id=121959389

[BurnDoubt]

14. It would have been better to shoot her in the legs?

[2MuchNoise]

3. "competing narratives" Yeesh. Is that anything like alternative facts?

[William Seger]

7. Yes, "alternative facts" compete against "fake news"

... on Planet Trump.

[stopdiggin]

11. might have been a few factors other that skin color coming into play

including a chief executive that is determined to decriminalize and whitewash the insurrection/riot.

[BidenRocks]

5. Insurrection Pays!

Her estate should reimburse the agent who had to shoot her for the bullet and trauma.
She was part of an angry mob. Any reasonable person could see this coming.

[rogue emissary]

6. In another word, reparations for a wrong against her family.

[Archae]

8. I saw a video made by Ashlii before Jan 6th...

She was a vicious radical, who openly said she wanted to kill those in the Capitol.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. So fucked up. She absolutely deserved death. As did everyone of her co-conspirators.

[FishBones51]

21. Fun Fact: The United States used to hang traitors.

[quakerboy]

10. Is there literally anything that can be done about this?

I dont know.. like a tax payer class action lawsuit to prevent this? I am NOT ok with my taxpayer dollars being used for this without every possible alternative being explored in court first.

[BurnDoubt]

13. ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucky for her she was White? There is no slice of time where this would be the case for a person of color.
J6 was insurrection; A White Riot where armed individuals ignored the direction of Law Enforcement (while many of the perps were, themselves, Law Enforcement) violently attacking legal authority and ransacking a Federal Building, The Peoples' House. Is ANY part of this untrue to the millions who witnessed this on their own TV screens? Why, then does this confer Sainthood on a Criminal killed, by Lawful Authority, in the act of breaking the Law? Bizzarro World.

[riversedge]

22. It was an "ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE" that Trump pardoned the thugs also. Lady Justice weeps!!

[BurnDoubt]

23. Naked Agression.

This assault has been in planning my whole life and they have arrived at their culmination moment... Prevail or Die. Liberty Valence moment. It is a battle of Will. Are we up to it?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. One small correction:

The Trump administration is set to pay out nearly $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter fatally shot during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

No, it isn’t.

YOU are set to pay out nearly $5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter fatally shot during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News on Monday.

Project 2025 and its talking hood ornament Donald Trump are going to do what they always do: hand you the bill and walk away.

[Balatro]

16. Her family doesn't deserve one red cent.

Not one.

[Botany]

17. Babbitt:

Crossed barricades that said, Police Line Do Not Cross

Broke into the U.S. Capitol

Participated in a violent riot to overturn our democracy

Was in the act of breaking into Speaker Pelosi office as part of a crowd looking
to find Speaker Pelosi and kill her for something she did not do.

And did not listen to a law enforcement officer’s order to stop what she was doing.

******
Krasnov’s America is straight out of Goebbles or Stalin’s rewriting of history.

Babbitt is dead. Good they should have short more of them but now the rest of those
J-6th and shits are out of prison and will be paid for their suffering.

Is it too early to start drinking?

[MissouriDem47]

18. Babbitt was a traitor

What nonsense, she deserved what happened to her.

[Nanjeanne]

19. Your tax dollars at work.

[mn9driver]

20. The Nazis had Horst Wessel

MAGA has Ashli Babbitt. Anyone who thinks the orange pustule isn’t using Nazism as a template isn’t paying attention.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

24. Maddow Blog-Trump administration planning to pay $5 million to the family of a rioter killed on Jan. 6

Members of Ashli Babbitt’s family filed a civil suit they were likely to lose. So why is the Justice Department planning to pay them $5 million?

Members of Ashli Babbitt’s family filed a civil suit they were likely to lose. Trump’s Justice Department is apparently planning to pay the Jan. 6 rioter’s relatives million anyway.

It’s tough to blame the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police for being disgusted. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-20T18:58:08.928Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-administration-planning-pay-5-million-family-rioter-killed-jan-6-rcna208050

It was a few weeks ago when Justice Department lawyers indicated in a court hearing that they’d reached a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter who was fatally shot by a police officer during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. At the time, however, there were no public indications as to the scope of the settlement.

As The New York Times reported, those details are now coming into view.

The Justice Department is discussing giving the relatives of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran killed by the police during the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, about $5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit they brought against the government last year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

.....In the months that immediately followed the attack on the Capitol, most leading Republicans, including Trump, expressed little interest in Babbitt. Her death was of great interest to the far-right fringe, but at least initially, Trump did not see her story as worthy of attention, and he also didn’t see the need to lash out at the police officer who had protected dozens of lawmakers and their aides.

But in June 2021, the Republican said that he saw Babbitt as an ally who was on his “side.” A month later, he said the rioter was “innocent.” A month after that, he accused the officer who shot her of “murder.” In 2023, Trump condemned the cop as a “thug” and a “coward” who deserves to be vilified, and earlier this year, the president inexplicably claimed that Babbitt was “shot for no reason whatsoever.”

This rhetoric is notable because it helps explain the apparent settlement. In theory, given the facts of the case, there’s no reason for the administration to settle with the Babbitt family, whose civil suit was likely to fail.

But in practice, the president and his team want to use American taxpayers’ money to reward Jan. 6 rioters, so it’s not the least bit surprising that the Trump administration also wants to direct $5 million to the Babbitt family, the weakness of their case notwithstanding.

Babbitt is a terrorist, and this is a waste of money

[SunImp]

25. This is Ghoulish

[Nobel_Twaddle_III]

26. Yet, in some states

If someone is committing a felony, and a police officer is killed during the course of that felony, the individual can be charged with murder, and in some jurisdictions, this could lead to a death penalty.

[Dulcinea]

27. I thought the government didn't negotiate with terrorists...

...let alone pay them off.

"Fuck these people." --Hunter S. Thompson

[electric_blue68]

28. No Money to them! Just read that she would "have surrendered" to the guard if he tried to arrest her once she got...

through.

Oh, suuure.
Even if she did...while the guard was arresting her; more insurrectionists would have been coming through overpowering him, and heading to the Congress people.

The guard had to do what he did.
She was a traitor intending harm, or worse.

[Emile]

29. 5 million for a traitor, but no money for Medicaid.