Judicial Watch Sues Defense Department for Records on Biden Administration’s Denial of Military Funeral for Ashli Babbitt

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for records on the Air Force’s denial under the Biden administration of a military funeral for Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was unlawfully ambushed, shot, and killed inside the U.S. Capitol by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on January 6, 2021. Babbitt was the only official January 6 homicide victim. The Biden administration denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-03249)). 

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the Air Force failed to comply with a May 15, 2024, FOIA request for:

All records concerning the request for military funeral honors for the funeral of SrA Ashli McEntee (Babbitt), the denial of that request by Lieutenant General Brian T. Kelly, USAF, and the circumstances reported to the Department of the Air Force concerning SrA Ashli McEntee’s (Babbitt) death, including but not limited to correspondence via emails, texts, and letters; phone calls; memoranda; notes; reports; audio recordings; voicemails; videos; entries in books or logs; directives; policies and procedures; guidance documents; and legal opinions.

On February 9, 2021, Lt. Gen. Kelly, who at the time was the Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services (A1), signed a letter addressed to Aaron Babbitt denying military funeral honors for his wife, SrA Ashli McEntee (Babbitt), USAF. On July 23, 2025, Judicial Watch Senior Counsel Robert Sticht wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asking him to reverse the Biden administration’s “grave national injustice” of denying Babbitt and her family military funeral honors: 

I am writing to urge you to make a new determination granting military funeral honors for SrA Ashli Elizabeth Pamatian, aka Ashli Elizabeth McEntee, and Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt, a War on Terror veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard.

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I respectfully encourage the Department of Defense to favorably consider two major recent developments and also Ashli’s lengthy and meritorious military service.

First, on January 20, 2025, President Trump granted clemency for certain offenses relating to the events at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Presidential proclamation states, “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” President Trump (a) commuted the sentences of certain individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; (b) granted a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted  of [similar] offenses….

Second … on July 2, 2025, the United States of America paid a damage award of nearly five million dollars to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Judicial Watch and I brought forward on behalf of the Estate of Ashli Babbitt and her husband Aaron Babbitt to ensure justice and accountability for the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021. Once again, Gen. Kelly’s denial of military funeral honors for Ashli’s funeral cannot be reconciled with this landmark legal settlement. Many well-documented facts now clearly show that the fatal shooting was not justified. 

The decision to finally extend military funeral honors was confirmed in a letter on August 15, 2025, written by Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew L. Lohmeier to Aaron Babbitt and Ashli Babbitt’s mother, Michelle Witthoeft:

On behalf of the Secretary of the Air Force, I write to extend the offer for Military Funeral Honors for SrA Ashli Babbitt. I understand that the family’s initial request was denied by Air Force leadership in a letter dated February 9, 2021. However, 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.

Judicial Watch obtained a $4.975 million settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. Government on behalf of Babbitt’s family (Estate of Ashli Babbitt and Aaron Babbitt, et al. v. United States of America (No. 1:24-cv-01701 (formerly 3:24-cv-00033))).

Judicial Watch has been pursuing several lawsuits to secure transparency regarding Babbitt’s killing and other government activities on January 6.

In January 2023, documents from the Department of the Air Force, Joint Base Andrews, MD, showed Byrd was housed at taxpayer expense at Joint Base Andrews after he shot and killed Babbitt inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In November 2021, Judicial Watch released multiple audio, visual and photo records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department about the shooting death of Babbitt in the U.S. Capitol Building. The records included a cell phone video of the shooting and an audio of a brief police interview of the shooter, Byrd.

In October 2021, Judicial Watch uncovered records from the DC Metropolitan Police about the shooting death of Babbitt. The new records included the January 6, 2021, Metro PD Death Report for Babbitt (identified as Ashli Elizabeth McEntee-Babbitt Pamatian). The investigators noted that the possible Manner of Death was “Homicide [Police Involved Shooting].”

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