Judicial Watch: Air Force Grants Funeral Honors to Ashli Babbitt

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the U.S. Air Force will finally provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was 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 had previously denied Babbitt and her family these honors in retaliation for being at the U.S. Capitol that day. This decision comes on the heels of a massive, nearly $5 million Trump administration settlement to her family for wrongful death and other claims against the U.S. Government.

Babbitt, 35, owned and operated a successful pool business with her husband Aaron. Ashli traveled alone from San Diego to Washington, DC, to attend the Women for America First (aka Save America) rally on January 6, 2021, at the Ellipse near the White House.

On July 23, 2025, Judicial Watch Senior Counsel Robert Sticht wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asking him to reverse the “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.

For example, Ashli was the only official homicide on January 6, 2021. Ashli, age 35, was unarmed when she was fatally shot. She stood 5’3’ tall and weighed 115 pounds. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and four armed officers behind him. Seven additional armed officers were behind Ashli, including four Containment and Emergency Response Team officers. Ashli posed no threat to the safety of any officer nor any Member of Congress who stayed after Member evacuation. Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot. Officers ignored Ashli. The only shot fired that day was the one Lt. Byrd fired to kill Ashli. Lt. Byrd was not in uniform. Lt. Byrd did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Ashli. Lt. Byrd also did not give Ashli any warnings or commands before firing the shot that killed her. Ashli never saw Lt. Byrd because he was hidden from her view. She was ambushed and defenseless. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, “you just murdered her.” Lt. Byrd later told the world on NBC Nightly News that he “had no clue” about the individual he shot. “I didn’t even know it was a female until hours, way later … that night,” he said.

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Ashli Babbitt’s patriotic and courageous service in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard also merits favorable action on this request.

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, Ashli’s husband 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.

“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 as a distinguished veteran of the Air Force,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch’s team spent years investigating, litigating, and exposing the truth about Ashli’s homicide. Judicial Watch is proud to have done its part in bringing her family a measure of justice and accountability for Ashli’s outrageous killing. And our battle for justice will continue.”

 (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 death 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 include the January 6, 2021, Metro PD Death Report for Babbitt (identified as Ashli Elizabeth McEntee-Babbitt Pamatian). The investigators note that the possible Manner of Death was “Homicide [Police Involved Shooting].”

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