Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt to be accorded US military funeral honours

Ashli Babbitt, a former Air Force and National Guard member, was shot by police as she tried to climb through a barricaded door during the Capitol riot to overturn the 2020 election

The US Air Force will grant military funeral honours to Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot during the 6 January Capitol riot, a move seen as part of Donald Trump’s bid to reframe the day’s events.

 

Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier confirmed the decision in an August letter to Babbitt’s family. The Biden administration had previously denied her such honours, but Lohmeier said he was “persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect” after reviewing new information about her death.

 

Babbitt, 35, who had served in the Air Force and Air National Guard, was shot by Capitol police as she attempted to climb through a barricaded door near the House chamber during the mob assault aimed at overturning the 2020 election results. According to Lohmeier’s letter, the air force had originally rejected funeral honours in February 2021, ruling they would “bring discredit upon the Air Force” given the circumstances of her death. She was the only person killed by gunfire during the January 6 Capitol riot.

 

 

The announcement, released on Wednesday by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, comes after the government paid Babbitt’s family nearly $5 million in July to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

   

Trump’s reshaping of Jan 6 

Since returning to the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump has systematically sought to reshape the narrative of the Capitol attack. On his first day back, he pardoned around 1,500 defendants linked to the riot, describing their prosecutions as “a grave national injustice”. The pardons covered nearly all those imprisoned or awaiting trial, including leaders of extremist groups convicted of seditious conspiracy.

 

The administration has dismissed dozens of federal prosecutors who handled January 6 cases and appointed lawyers who had previously defended rioters, one of whom compared the prosecutions to the Holocaust. The justice department has also hired former FBI agent Jared Wise, who took part in the attack and was accused of encouraging the mob to kill police officers before being pardoned by Trump.

 

Trump has repeatedly referred to the rioters as “patriots” and “political prisoners”, presenting the assault on the Capitol as an act of legitimate protest rather than an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. His systematic reversal extends beyond pardons to a wholesale reframing of 6 January as political persecution rather than criminal conduct.

   

 

Babbitt, a Trump loyalist 

Babbitt, who owned a pool business in San Diego with her husband, had travelled alone to Washington DC to attend Trump’s ‘Save America’ rally before joining the storming of the US Capitol building.

 

Her military funeral honours will include a ceremony with taps and the presentation of an American flag to her family. Lohmeier has also invited Babbitt’s husband and mother to meet him at the Pentagon.