democrats rewarded Michael Byrd for murdering Ashli Babbitt

On Jan 6, 2021 Michael Byrd murdered Ashli Babbitt. He shot her as she attempted to enter the Speaker’s Lobby in the Capitol through a window she did not break. For his actions, democrats rewarded him handsomely, even promoting him.

House Democrats pressured U.S. Capitol Police to provide special financial assistance and even a promotion to the officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer and charitable assistance not provided to other officers, according to internal emails reviewed by Just the News.

“He is very upset about how he is being treated. He wants us to figure this out and now,” a top congressional aide to then-House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, wrote to Capitol Police in November 2021 pressing for more assistance to Lt. Michael Byrd after he killed Babbitt.

The records show that pressure also came from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staff and from then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, causing Capitol Police to find any solution they could to make Byrd and Democrats happy. Despite the extraordinary assistance, Byrd expressed dissatisfaction and continued to insist he deserved more, to the chagrin of Capitol Police officials, according to records assembled by Congress. 

“We play the game as you request and then once we’re in compliance You guys change the rules on us,” Byrd wrote to U.S. Capitol Police General Counsel Thomas DiBiase in November 2021 after being informed he wouldn’t be able to immediately access charitable funds from a memorial fund for fallen or wounded officers.

Immediately, one wonders why Byrd was given access to a memorial fund for wounded or fallen officers as he was neither. Capitol police then set up a GoFundMe account for Byrd handing $160,000.  Two years later Byrd was promoted to Captain.

All of this despite a significant disciplinary history:

• A 2004 incident where Byrd, who was off duty, fired his weapon at a stolen vehicle as it was fleeing his residential neighborhood;
• A 2015 “conduct unbecoming an officer” complaint filed by a fellow officer after Byrd, again off duty, confronted him while the officer was working at a high school football game in an incident with racial overtones;
• A 33-day suspension in 2019 after Byrd left his service weapon unattended in a public Capitol Hill bathroom;
• A failure to pass a routine background check shortly after Jan. 6 when attempting to purchase a shotgun for home protection, after the USCP worked to provide Byrd a department-issued shotgun instead, he failed the training; and
• Three further referrals to the Capitol Police Office of Professional Responsibility for which records are reportedly missing.

None of this is sitting well with other Capitol police.

It’s not too strong to assert that Michael Byrd murdered Ashli Babbitt. Jonathan Turley:

At the time, some of us familiar with the rules governing police use of force raised concerns over the shooting. Those concerns were heightened by the DOJ’s bizarre review and report, which stated the governing standards but then seemed to brush them aside to clear Byrd.

The DOJ report did not read like any post-shooting review I have read as a criminal defense attorney or law professor. The DOJ statement notably does not say that the shooting was justified. Instead, it stressed that “prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so ‘willfully.’” It seemed simply to shrug and say that the DOJ did not believe it could prove “a bad purpose to disregard the law” and that “evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent.”

While the Supreme Court, in cases such as Graham v. Connor, has said that courts must consider “the facts and circumstances of each particular case,” it has emphasized that lethal force must be used only against someone who is “an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and … is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.” Particularly with armed assailants, the standard governing “imminent harm” recognizes that these decisions must often be made in the most chaotic and brief encounters.

Under these standards, police officers should not shoot unarmed suspects or rioters without a clear threat to themselves or fellow officers. That even applies to armed suspects who fail to obey orders. Indeed, Huntsville police officer William “Ben” Darby was convicted of killing a suicidal man holding a gun to his head. Despite being cleared by a police review board, Darby was prosecuted, found guilty, and sentenced to 25 years in prison, even though Darby said he feared for the safety of himself and fellow officers. Yet law professors and experts who have praised such prosecutions in the past have been conspicuously silent over the shooting of an unarmed woman who had officers in front of and behind her on Jan. 6.

Today on X Paul Sperry wrote:

USCP cop Byrd who killed unarmed Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was cleared w/o an interview: “He didn’t provide any statement to investigators and they didn’t push him to make a statement,” attorney Terry Roberts told me. “It’s astonishing how skimpy his investigative file is”

That brings us to a video posted last month. I have seen this event in many different formats but this one ties timelines together. This has bothered the hell out of me since the videos first became available. At about 45:30 the camera follows Ashli Babbitt.

At 45:58 Babbitt finds 3 Capitol police in front of the windows which would soon be broken by others. Soon after they left their assignment.

Why did those cops abandon their post?

Byrd’s weapon is now clearly visible. At 46:48 he executes Babbitt. As she falls to the floor a heavily armed SWAT team is seen immediately behind her. They were present for all of this.

WATCH J6: A True Timeline

“This video is eye-opening”
“Extremely detailed timeline”
“Best documentary I have seen to date on January 6th”

See the events as they unfolded in real time, and then demand that Donald Trump declassify everything about J6! @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/IcL5Gp44To

— Jason Rink (@TheJasonRink) November 8, 2024

If she represented the threat Byrd claimed she was why did the SWAT team not attempt to stop her?

Byrd would later brag about killing her

“I know that day I saved countless lives.”

He sounds a lot like the manic Nathan Jessup in “A Few Good Men.”

“You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know—that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. “

Any other cop in the country would be subject to criminal charges for what Byrd did. He is no hero. I’ve written about this several times but a satisfactory investigation still awaits a day in the sun.

IMO he is a murderer. Hopefully the hammer of justice visits him as well.

DrJohn

DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 40 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 45 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter who is in the field of education.

DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.

Except for liberals being foolish.