President Donald Trump has pledged to take a “look at” whether the government should reach a settlement with the family of Ashli Babbit, the January 6 insurrectionist who was shot dead by a police officer as she tried to enter the U.S. Capitol.
The president has repeatedly praised his supporters who attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, including Babbitt. The U.S. Air Force veteran was fatally shot while climbing through a broken door barricaded by officers as they attempted to evacuate dozens of Congress members.
Last year, Babbitt’s family filed a $30 million wrongful death suit against the U.S. government.
Trump, who in January granted clemency to 1,500 charged with crimes connected to the January 6, 2021 attack, told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on Tuesday that he will examine whether the Department of Justice should settle the case.
Kelly told Trump that the government is “still kind of fighting that case” and that the DOJ “is opposing that lawsuit.”
“You’re telling me that for the first time. I haven’t heard that,” Trump responded.
“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.”
“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,” he added.
Kelly then probed about Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot Babbitt, who is still on duty.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump, who was endorsed by the largest police union in the U.S. last year, said. “I’m going to look at that too. His reputation was — I won’t even say. Let’s find out about his reputation, okay? We’re going to find out.”
The president also hinted at the idea of a “compensation fund” for Jan. 6 defendants who were previously imprisoned that he claimed were treated “very unfairly” by the Biden administration.
“Well, there’s a lot of talk about that. A lot of people that are in government now talk about it, because a lot of people in government really like that group of people,” he said.
“They were patriots, as far as I was concerned,” he continued. “A group of people went down there, peacefully and patriotically, remember that.”
On Friday, the president brought up Babbitt’s fatal shooting when he compared the vandalization of Tesla dealerships to the storming of the Capitol, stating the level of attacks were greater against Elon Musk’s company.
“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.”
