An Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by U.S. Capitol Police while trying to break into the House chamber during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot has been granted military funeral honors by the Trump administration.
Ashli Babbitt, who served as a senior airman, was among a group of rioters attempting to smash through barricaded doors outside the chamber full of House lawmakers when she was shot, according to video of the incident. She and other rioters illegally entered the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election and keep Donald Trump in power, despite his election loss.
Air Force Under Secretary Matthew Lohmeier, a previously fired Space Force Guardian who was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in July, approved the funeral honors in an Aug. 15 letter, which was shared by the conservative nonprofit activist group Judicial Watch and verified as authentic by the Air Force. Lohmeier reversed a 2021 decision by the Biden administration to deny Babbitt a military funeral.
Read Next: Trump Wants a Department of War. A House GOP Amendment Would Give Him One.
“I understand that the family's initial request was denied by Air Force leadership in a letter dated Feb. 9, 2021,” Lohmeier’s letter to Babbitt’s husband and mother said. “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.”
Lohmeier’s approval also included an invitation to Babbitt’s family to “meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences,” as well as a handwritten and signed note on the letter saying “please let me know what I can do to be of service!”
The reversal marks the Trump administration’s latest move to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 riot and reverse punishments for those who tried to overturn the election. As one of his first acts after returning to the presidency in January, Trump pardoned about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the Capitol in 2021, including troops and veterans, as well as members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups.
An Air Force spokesperson did not respond when asked what new information Lohmeier received to reverse the past decision.
“After reviewing the circumstances of SrA Babbitt’s death, the Air Force has offered military funeral honors to SrA Babbitt’s family,” the spokesperson added.
In an Aug. 9, 2024, post on the social media platform X, Lohmeier described the Jan. 6 riot as "a gov't-led false flag and hoax at the Capitol."
Lohmeier, a former Space Force officer who was fired from command after making claims that Marxism was rampant in the ranks of the military, said during his confirmation hearing that there was “so much uncertainty about what was really going on" during the Jan. 6 riots, Military.com previously reported.
Military funeral honors typically involve the playing of “Taps” and the folding and presentation of the American flag to the next of kin by at least two uniformed service members, according to the Department of Defense.
Babbitt was originally denied the honors, according to a February 2021 letter released by Judicial Watch, due to the circumstances of her death.
“I have determined that military funeral honors would bring discredit upon the Air Force,” said the 2021 letter signed by Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, an Air Force official. “Should any new information come forward for consideration, I will make a new determination at that time.”
Babbitt’s service began after graduation from basic training in August 2004; she served in the Air Force until June 2009 and then in the Air National Guard for several years, according to Judicial Watch, before being honorably discharged after roughly 12 years of service.
Babbitt receiving funeral honors also follows a $5 million damage settlement awarded to her estate in July, according to a statement by Judicial Watch, which has been representing the family. Later that month, a July 23 letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from the group’s senior counsel asked for a new determination for a funeral with military honors.
“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,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in the statement.
However, Army veteran Kris Goldsmith, the CEO of the nonprofit Task Force Butler, which is focused on countering authoritarianism, viewed the Trump administration’s move as an insult to those who served their country honorably.
“For the Trump administration to try to rewrite history is deeply offensive to everyone who served in uniform honorably and never betrayed their country and never tried to violently end our democracy," Goldsmith told Military.com in an interview Thursday.
Related: Troop Pardons Set to Complicate Military's Muddled Response to Jan. 6
