Restitution for Domestic Terrorism?

The Trump administration is set to award almost $5 million to Ashli Babbitt's family, compliments of U.S. taxpayers.

On January 6, 2021, 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt was a violent participant in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She wasn’t simply meandering around inside the building like the ‘QAnon Shaman’ or one of those “peaceful grandmothers” you may have heard about. No, she was at the front of a pack of insurrectionists who (under the belief that the 2020 election had been stolen, and lawmakers inside were unjustly certifying it) made it all the way to the Speaker’s Lobby… mere feet away from fleeing members of Congress.

There, Babbitt and others busted their way through interior windows alongside a barricaded door, while police officers warned them to stop. With a backpack over her shoulders (and later found to have a knife), Babbitt, ignoring more warnings, climbed through a shattered window pane and was shot in the shoulder by a veteran Capitol police officer.

Babbitt later died from her wound.

The officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, was cleared of any wrongdoing by Capitol Police and the U.S. Department of Justice. His job had been to protect lawmakers, and he made a difficult but correct call. Babbitt had every opportunity that day to spare herself from what happened, but she chose otherwise.

By any objective measure (and even by the estimation of Ted Cruz and other GOP lawmakers at the time), Ashli Babbitt was a domestic terrorist. She died committing an act of terrorism at the U.S. Capitol.

Now, a little over four years later, the Trump administration is preparing to award Babbitt’s family nearly $5 million in restitution for her death, compliments of U.S. taxpayers.

The settlement is in response to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Babbitt’s family, which was opposed by the DOJ under President Biden, having found no evidence that Babbitt’s civil rights had been violated. But the lawsuit was met with much more department sympathy under President Trump, who has famously cast Babbitt as a “martyr” and “patriot”, and has claimed she was “shot for no reason whatsoever.” Trump has even outright accused Officer Byrd of murder, despite no legal basis for doing so.

Governments providing financial support to the families of deceased terrorists isn’t exactly new, of course, but that sort of thing mostly happens in the Middle East. Americans should find it absolutely appalling that it is now practiced here in the United States, and that they are the ones flipping the bill. But sadly, it just feels like a natural progression of the fallout from January 6.

Almost 1,600 people who committed crimes at the Capitol that day, including those who assaulted police officers, were granted a full presidential pardon just a few months ago. The president similarly granted clemency to those convicted of seditious conspiracy, some of who were facing decades in prison. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on the January 6 investigation and related court cases have been targeted and punished by the administration, while police officers who were beaten that day (in some cases so badly that they had to retire from the force) are called “fake police” by the president, and continue to be threatened and harassed by the MAGA faithful.

The question, “How can this happen in the United States of America?” is an overused rhetorical device, but in this particular case, I think it’s an entirely appropriate one to raise.

There’s nothing wrong with having sympathy for Ashli Babbitt’s family. Heck, I have sympathy for them; they’re not to blame for she did. Individuals (including Trump) are free to privately give them money, and I’m sure many have (likely totaling more than $5 million).

But by absolutely no means should our government be accepting liability, and paying restitution, for her death. That’s not only gross, but un-American.