US air force to grant military honors to Capitol rioter fatally shot on January 6 | US Capitol attack
The US Air Force will offer military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the rioter deadly killed during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, marking another stage in the aggressive rehabilitation of Donald Trump of the attack.
The Air Force under-secretary, Matthew Lohmeier, confirmed the decision of a letter of August to the family of Babbitt. The Biden administration had previously denied Babbitt the honors, but Lohmeier said he was “convinced that the previous determination was incorrect” after examining new information on his death.
Babbitt, 35, served in the Air Force and Air National Guard and was shot dead by the Capitol Hill police while riding through a barricaded door near the house of the house in the mass frenzy to overthrow the results of the 2020 elections. The Air Force had initially refused the honors in February 2021, according to Lohmeier’s letter, saying that they would “bring it to the air” circumstances of his death. She was the only person killed by gunshots during the riot.
The announcement, made public Wednesday by judicial supervision of the conservative legal group, follows an unjustified death regulations of nearly $ 5 million that the government paid the Babbitt family in July.
Trump has systematically worked to crop on January 6 since his return to functions. On the first day, he pardoned around 1,500 accused linked to the riot, describing their prosecution “a serious national injustice”. The pardons covered almost all those imprisoned or awaiting trials, including extremist group leaders condemned for seditious conspiracy.
The administration dismissed dozens of federal prosecutors who worked in the business of January 6 and hired lawyers who previously defended rioters, including one who compared the proceedings to the Holocaust. The Ministry of Justice also hired the former FBI agent Jared Wise, who participated in the attack and was accused of encouraging the crowd to kill police before receiving Trump forgiveness.
Trump repeatedly called on the rioters “patriotic” and “political prisoners”, supervising the assault against the Capitol as a legitimate manifestation rather than an attempt to overthrow the 2020 elections. The systematic reversal extends beyond the pardons to a wholesale reimagination of January 6 as a political persecution rather than a criminal conduct.
Babbitt had a swimming pool company with her husband in San Diego. She traveled alone to Washington DC for Trump’s “Save America” rally before joining the raid on the Capitol.
Military honors will include a ceremony with taps and the presentation of an American flag to his family. Lohmeier also invited Babbitt’s mother and husband to meet him at the Pentagon.
