In today’s episode of It Must Be Nice To Be White And A Domestic Terrorist In Trump’s America, the Trump administration has agreed to pay nearly $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 Capitol rioter who got herself fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while climbing over a barricade she was warned not to breach.
(Babbitt’s family lawyer argued in 2021 that she was “ambushed” and shot without warning, but the officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, who was cleared of all wrongdoing, testified that he instructed Babbitt and her fellow mindless MAGA mopes to back away from the barricade numerous times.)
According to CNN, once the settlement is approved by the court, it will mark the end of a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Babbitt’s family, which means, at the very least, that the family will only see a fraction of what they were seeking, which they didn’t deserve any of in the first place, because a terrorist getting shot while engaging in an act of terrorism isn’t “wrongful,” it’s just what happens. (And this wouldn’t even need to be explained to a MAGAt if we were talking about a Muslim terrorist or a Black Lives Matter activist who had done anything remotely similar to what Babbitt did.)
From CNN:
During a hearing on May 2, lawyers for Babbitt’s estate as well as attorneys for the Justice Department confirmed that a settlement in principle has been reached in the case and said the agreement would cover all parameters of the suit.
In April 2021, the US attorney for the District of Columbia determined that no federal laws were broken in the shooting. The Justice Department found “no evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully” used unlawful or unreasonable force.
“Specifically, the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber,” the office wrote in astatementat the time.
Different legal standards, however, exist for civil suits like the one brought by Babbitt’s family, and criminal charges.
In a statement Monday, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said he was “extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement.”
“In 2021, the DOJ investigation determined no wrongdoing by police. This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours,” Manger said.
But see, the DOJ under President Joe Biden is a different DOJ than the one that exists under President Donald Trump, who has been trying desperately to rewrite what Jan. 6 was, which, in reality, is a domestic terrorist attack that he directly inspired. That’s why Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters. It’s why he has repeatedly described the rioters as protesters who behaved “peacefully and patriotically.” It’s why he was toying around with the idea of paying reparations to Jan. 6 convicts in March. And it’s why the same Trump DOJ that recently ended a settlement agreement regarding wastewater issues in a mostly Black rural Alabama county — erroneously citing the White House’s anti-DEI directive — is set to sign off on an undeserved settlement agreement for Babbitt’s family.
But this is how we make America great again, right?
