Congressional Democrats and the Capitol Police are slamming the Trump administration’s move to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6, 2021, rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.
“What type of message does it send to people who defended the Capitol? It’s horrible that Ashli Babbitt lost her life that day. And it’s horrible that her mother has to grieve her,” former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn said this month, after news of the tentative settlement broke. “But that day could’ve been avoided if Donald Trump didn’t send a mob to attack police officers at the Capitol.”
The settlement in principle was confirmed by attorneys during a court hearing early this month, though negotiations were still not final. The wrongful death suit was filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group, on behalf of Babbitt’s estate. The plaintiffs initially sought $30 million in damages.
“Although Trump’s new attorney general is set to give $5 million to the rioter’s family, Trump has not proposed to give a penny to the more than 140 police officers injured, wounded, hospitalized, disfigured, and/or disabled in their violence,” said House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., at a hearing on Tuesday, using a dollar amount for the tentative settlement first reported by The Washington Post.
Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said he was “extremely disappointed” with the move to settle.
“This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours,” Manger said in a statement Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer echoed that sentiment, posting on X on Tuesday, “This sends a sickening message to police and first responders. When it matters most, Trump will turn his back on you.”
Babbitt was shot by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby off the House floor, as rioters overtook the Capitol in an effort to stall the certification of election results amid Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen.
The lawsuit alleges negligent use of a firearm by Byrd. An internal Capitol Police investigation in 2021 determined Byrd’s conduct was “lawful and within department policy.” The Department of Justice in 2021 also declined to pursue criminal charges against Byrd.
Babbitt was part of a mob of rioters who entered the Capitol that day, injuring at least 140 police officers and causing about $2.9 million in damage.
In one of the first acts of his second presidential term, Trump pardoned nearly everyone who was charged for involvement in the riot and commuted the sentences of 14 other people convicted on more serious charges.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Raskin said that taken together, the pardons, the move to settle the Babbitt suit, and federal charges this week against Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., stemming from an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility “show how MAGA has turned American justice completely upside down and inside out.”
He also pointed to an overdue plaque that was supposed to be installed by now on the western side of the Capitol to mark the service of law enforcement on Jan. 6. News of the Babbitt settlement “exacerbates the insult of Speaker Johnson’s continuing refusal to hang a simple plaque in honor of the officers who defended the Capitol,” said Raskin, who served on the select committee led by Democrats in the 117th Congress that investigated the attack.
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