Trump DOJ said to pay $5M to family of Jan. 6 rioter

Image of Ashli Babbitt — Trump returned to office 'casting Babbitt as a martyr and seeking to rewrite the history of the assault on the Capitol as a heroic act of collective patriotism'

(Image credit: Yasin Ozturk / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

What happened

The Trump administration has agreed to pay nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old woman fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as she tried to breach an entrance to the House chamber during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, several news organizations said Monday. Babbitt's family had sought $30 million.

The reported settlement reverses the Justice Department's "earlier opposition in the case" and averts a trial slated for July 2026, The Washington Post said. President Donald Trump returned to office "casting Babbitt as a martyr and seeking to rewrite the history of the assault on the Capitol as a heroic act of collective patriotism, not a violent effort to overturn an election" by his supporters. Four other people also died in and directly after the violence.