Trump administration reaches $5M settlement with Ashli Babbitt's family
The Trump administration has agreed to pay nearly $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt to settle a lawsuit brought by Babbitt's estate, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
The settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Babbitt's estate does not include an admission of wrongdoing, News.Az reports, citing Newsweek.
Babbitt was an Air Force veteran and a staunch Trump supporter who was fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer on January 6, 2021, as she was attempting to enter the House Speaker's Lobby during the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
She was one of thousands of Trump supporters who rioted at the Capitol to try to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. Babbitt's estate filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government last year.
President Donald Trump, who urged his supporters to "stop the steal" at a rally in Washington before the riot, has championed Babbitt as a hero and referred to the more than 1,200 people who were convicted over the riot as "J6 hostages."
Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all convicted rioters on his first day back in office on January 20.
He also directed that all "who are currently held in prison" be "released immediately" and ordered the attorney general "to pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments" in cases connected to the riot. Dismissing a case "with prejudice" means it cannot be refiled using the same facts that were cited in the original complaint.
Babbitt's estate filed the wrongful death lawsuit last year, alleging that the Capitol Police officer who fatally shot her failed to deescalate the situation and did not give her any warnings or commands before firing his gun.
"Ashli posed no threat to anyone," the lawsuit said of Babbitt, who was shot as she attempted to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door while Trump supporters tried to get into the House chamber.
In August 2021, the officer who shot Babbitt broke his silence and said in a television interview that he fired as a "last resort," adding that when he pulled the trigger, he didn't know if the person on the other side of the window was armed or unarmed.
The officer was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Capitol Police.
Similar news
