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

Yahoo

20-05-2025

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.
Different news organizations have come to different conclusions about the specifics of the legal process — some have said the settlement agreement is complete, for example — but NBC News is on the same page as the Times, which noted that the details of the negotiations are still being finalized.
Nevertheless, the pointed reactions to the developments have been notable. For example, Thomas Manger, the outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, does not usually issue public statements, but as Politico reported, in this instance, he made an exception.
'I am extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement,' Manger said, noting that a prior Justice Department investigation found no wrongdoing by police. 'This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.'
On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a similar reaction. 'Awarding the family of an insurrectionist $5 million is an insult to first responders — those who are in the Capitol and those everywhere,' the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor. 'It sends a sickening message to police and all other first responders throughout the country: When it matters most, Donald Trump will turn his back on you.'
For those who might need a refresher, let's revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
During the Jan. 6 attack, a group of rioters reached a doorway that led to a House chamber hallway. That hallway was an escape route for lawmakers who could see the attackers through glass windows.
As regular readers know, when rioters smashed through those windows, one of the insurrectionists, Babbitt, tried to break through to enter the hallway where members of Congress were being evacuated to safety. Officers asked her to stand down. She refused. A police officer eventually fired a single shot, and the rioter later died at a local hospital.
Then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a year before the Oklahoma Republican's election to the Senate, was a witness to the developments and conceded publicly that the officer 'did what he had to do' and 'didn't have a choice.' What's more, the U.S. Capitol Police cleared the lieutenant who fired the shot, and the Justice Department officials who examined the matter determined that charges against the officer were not warranted.
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.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com