The federal government is expected to pay out about $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt to settle a lawsuit brought by her estate.
The Trump advocate who was shot and killed by a police officer when she tried to storm the House Speaker’s Lobby during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Babbitt family filed a wrongful-death suit at the amount of $30 million last year.
Attorneys for the family and Justice Department told the judge earlier this month that they had reached a settlement in principle, which reversed the DOJ’s previous stance in the case, which had resulted in a trial being set for July 2026.
A final deal has not been inked and terms of the agreement were not revealed at the May 2 hearing.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ana C. Reyes ordered both sides to update the court by this Thursday.
According to multiple reports, the DOJ agreed in principle to pay a little under $5 million to Babbitt’s family, with about one-third to go to their attorneys, who include the conservative group Judicial Watch and Richard Driscoll, an Alexandria, Virginia, lawyer.
The settlement happened in the midst of President Trump’s return to the White House and his declaring the Jan. 6 defendants, whom he pardoned, as “political hostages” and Babbitt as a martyr.
Babbitt was the only direct fatality on that day, though there were other deaths from later police suicides and from rioters from having medical episodes not resulting from the violence.
The 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego was unarmed when she was shot by a police lieutenant when she tried to climb through the door as others in the mob pressed to get into the lobby outside the House chamber.
The lawsuit alleged that the officer, who was not in uniform, failed to de-escalate the circumstances and did not give her any warnings or commands before opening fire.
It also alleges negligence on the part of Capitol Police. The lawsuit says the department “should have known” that the officer was “prone to behave in a dangerous or otherwise incompetent manner.”
“Ashli posed no threat to the safety of anyone,” the lawsuit said.
The Capitol Police officer, who was cleared in an investigation, said in a televised interview that he fired as a “last resort.”
When he pulled the trigger, he said, he had no idea whether the person jumping through the window was armed.
In a statement in 2021, Mr. Trump said he had questioned why the officer who shot her was “getting away with murder.”
U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger sent a message to his department’s officers earlier this month after hearing of the proposed settlement.
“This is extremely disappointing and I completely disagree with the Department of Justice’s decision,” Mr. Manger wrote.
“In 2021, the DOJ said that there was no evidence to show that law enforcement broke the law. After a thorough investigation it was determined to be a justified shooting. This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement officers across our nation — especially those who have a protective mission like ours.”
•This article was based in part on wire service reports.
