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The Air Force decided to extend military funeral honors to deceased Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a police officer during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The decision came after Air Force leadership during the Biden administration previously denied the request in February 2021, shortly after Babbitt was killed. The decision also comes on the heels of a wrongful death settlement reached in July, which resulted in the government paying the Babbitt family nearly $5 million.
“On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, I write to extend the offer for Military Funeral Honors for SrA Ashli Babbitt,” stated an Aug. 15 letter from the Undersecretary of the Air Force, sent to Babbitt’s husband, Aaron, according to the family’s legal representatives. “After reviewing the circumstances of Ashli’s death, and considering the information that has come forward since then, I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect.”
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“After reviewing the circumstances of SrA Babbitt’s death, the Air Force has offered Military Funeral Honors to SrA Babbitt’s family,” an Air Force spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Babbitt was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol police officer as she was attempting to forcibly gain access to the Capitol chambers during the events of Jan. 6. Roughly three months later the Department of Justice announced it would not be pursuing criminal charges against the officer who shot Babbitt.
Both praise and criticism followed the news that the Air Force would be granting Babbitt her military honors, previously denied under Biden.
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“There is no better example of how a leader is supposed to act, than right here in this letter,” said General Michael Flynn, a longtime Trump confidant who spent a short stint as the president’s National Security Advisor after a long tenure in the military and time leading the Defense Intelligence Agency, in response to the undersecretary’s letter restoring Babbitt’s honors.
“May Ashli Babbitt now Rest In Peace and her family gain some measure of solace for the wonderful person she was and the light of truth she brought to each of us,” Flynn concluded.
Meanwhile, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who was part of the GOP-maligned Jan. 6 Congressional Committee that investigated the Capitol riot, slammed the move to restore Babbitt’s honors.
“[Ashli] Babbit dishonored her service by committing insurrection against her country. While her death is absolutely tragic and I wish it hadn’t happened, the Air Force giving her honors is in itself a dishonor,” Kinzinger said in response to the news.
A former Capitol Police officer who described Jan. 6 as one of the worst days of his life, Aquilino Gonell, suggested the move was a slap in the face to people who got hurt as a result of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Not to officers, like Brian Sicknick, who served in the Air National Guard, but the member of the mob who stormed the Capitol and put herself and other’s lives in danger,” the former Capitol Police officer said of the restored honors. “Wtf.”
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