The U.S. government is offering a funeral with military honors for Ashli Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran who was shot and killed while attempting to force entry to a secure area of the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
A U.S. Capitol Police officer shot Babbitt when she attempted to climb through a window into the Speaker's lobby. The Department of Justice and the Capitol Police both cleared the officer of wrongdoing following the incident.
In an August 15 letter obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier told Babbitt's family that the Air Force was reversing an earlier decision, made in 2021, to deny the family's request to extend Babbitt military honors.
"After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli's death. and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect," Lohmeier wrote.
RELATED STORY | Trump administration agrees to nearly $5 million settlement in case of Ashli Babbitt's Jan. 6 shooting death
The Trump administration announced in May it would pay close to $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Babbitt's estate.
The lawsuit, which originally sought $30 million, alleged that the officer who shot Babbitt failed to de-escalate the situation. It also alleged that the Capitol Police were negligent and should have expected that the officer who shot Babbitt was "prone to behave in a dangerous or otherwise incompetent manner."
On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted sentences for more than 1,500 criminal defendants charged in association with Jan. 6 attack. He referred to those convicted as “hostages,” and had made it a campaign promise to pardon their sentences.
