After nearly five years of controversy, denial, and legal battles, the U.S. Air Force has reversed course: Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran fatally shot inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, will now receive full military funeral honors.
The announcement comes after Judicial Watch formally petitioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reconsider the case, citing two seismic developments: President Trump’s sweeping January 2025 clemency proclamation absolving J6 defendants, and the July 2025 settlement in which the federal government paid nearly $5 million to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Babbitt’s estate.
BREAKING: The US Air Force has RESTORED funeral honors to veteran Ashli Babbitt — reversing a vicious, political decision by the Biden regime to deny them to her and her grieving family. Thank you @RealDonaldTrump, @SecDef @PeteHegseth and @usairforce Under Sec @matthewlohmeier!… https://t.co/kdSCWkelUg
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) August 27, 2025
Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier, in a letter to Babbitt’s husband Aaron and her mother, acknowledged that the original 2021 denial was “incorrect” in light of the facts and subsequent legal determinations. For the first time, the U.S. military is officially recognizing Babbitt not as a criminal, but as a veteran deserving the honors she earned.
It is hard to overstate how much this reversal underscores a national reckoning.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton declared, “Ashli Babbitt’s family is grateful to President Trump, Secretary Hegseth and Under Secretary Lohmeier for reversing the Biden Defense Department’s cruel decision to deny Ashli funeral honors… Judicial Watch is proud to have done its part in bringing her family a measure of justice and accountability for Ashli’s outrageous killing.”
The details of Babbitt’s death, laid out again in Judicial Watch’s filings, remain as haunting as ever. She was unarmed, weighing 115 pounds and standing just 5’3”, with her hands visible and empty.
She was surrounded by armed officers—seven behind her, four of them from the Containment and Emergency Response Team—and yet Lt. Michael Byrd, hidden from her view, fired a single fatal shot without warning or command. Byrd later admitted he didn’t know who he had shot, or even that it was a woman until hours later.
This wasn’t just tragedy; it was the lone fatal shooting classified as a homicide on January 6. And after years of official stonewalling, two facts now stand indisputable: the federal government paid millions to settle with her estate, and the President of the United States declared a broad pardon for J6-related offenses, calling the prosecutions a “grave national injustice.”
