President Trump has made several recent statements calling for answers about who shot Ashli Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran shot inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, amid her family’s lack of answers from law enforcement.
Most recently, he raised questions about the tragic case during a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, where he suggested that the person who shot her may have links to a high-ranking Democrat.
“Who shot Ashli Babbitt? Why are they keeping that secret?” Trump asked. “Who was the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman? Right in the head.”
“I will tell you, they know who shot Ashli Babbitt,” he said. “They’re protecting that person.”
“I’ve heard also that it was the head of security for a certain high official. A Democrat. And we’ll see. Because it’s gonna come out,” Trump continued.
At the Bedminster press conference earlier this month, President Trump said there was “no reason” for Babbitt to be shot.
“The person that shot Ashli Babbitt — boom, right through the head,” he continued. “There was no reason for that. And why isn’t that person being opened up, and why isn’t that being studied? They’ve already written it off. They said that case is closed. If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years, and it would not be pretty.”
He also addressed a controversial issue surrounding the Capitol police being exempt from having to release documents to the public identifying officers involved in shootings within days, whereas regular police agencies are required to do so. To this day, no federal agency, including the Justice Department, has released the identity of the Capitol officer responsible for Ashli Babbitt’s death.
The Department of Justice officially closed the investigation in April of this year after concluding that the unidentified officer involved in the shooting is not guilty nor was there any plausible evidence to “establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242.”
Babbitt’s family is reportedly planning on suing both the alleged Capitol officer, as well as USCP as a whole.