The Trump administration has reached a settlement to pay almost $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer during the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Babbitt was killed as she attempted to climb through a smashed window into the House Speaker’s lobby while protesters tried to halt certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Her estate later filed a $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit.
According to two people familiar with the negotiations, the Justice Department, after reversing course once Donald Trump returned to the White House following his November 2024 victory, entered settlement talks that produced the nearly $5 million agreement, heading off a trial that had been on the docket for later this year.
Although the Capitol Police officer involved was cleared of wrongdoing, Trump has insisted the shooting was unnecessary, calling Babbitt an “innocent” woman.
Supporters have since portrayed her as a “martyr,” and the conservative legal group Judicial Watch represented her estate in the suit.
In a related move, Trump issued pardons on his first day back in office for more than 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Capitol breach, which injured over 140 police officers.
The assault followed a rally near the White House where then-President Trump repeated false claims that he had won the 2020 election and urged supporters to march on the Capitol.
