The Department of Justice has filed to change the location of Ashli Babbitt’s wrongful death lawsuit from Babbit’s home state of California to Washington, DC.
Babbitt was an unarmed 35 year-old Air Force veteran and small business owner from San Diego when she was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on Jan. 6, 2021. She had attended a Trump support rally and marched to the Capitol. Byrd shot her as she climbed through a broken window inside the Capitol leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.
The watchdog group Judicial Watch is representing the Babbit family and filed a lawsuit on January 5 in the US District Court for the Southern District of California.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Babbitt’s husband, Aaron, and Ashli’s estate, seeking $30 million in damages, alleging wrongful death and assault and battery by Lt. Byrd.
Let’s be blunt, the Biden DOJ wants to move the Ashli Babbitt wrongful death lawsuit to D.C. because it knows the courts here are notoriously hostile to anyone tied to the January 6 protests.
Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch President
The Judicial Watch complaint recounts the following:
The shooting occurred at the east entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby. After demonstrators filled the hallway outside the lobby, two individuals in the crowded, tightly packed hallway struck and dislodged the glass panels in the lobby doors and the right door sidelight.
Lt. Byrd, who is a United States Capitol Police commander and was the incident commander for the House on January 6, 2021, shot Ashli on sight as she raised herself up into the opening of the right door sidelight.
Lt. Byrd later confessed that he shot Ashli before seeing her hands or assessing her intentions or even identifying her as female. Ashli was unarmed. Her hands were up in the air, empty, and in plain view of Lt. Byrd and other officers in the lobby.
The facts speak truth. Ashli was ambushed when she was shot by Lt. Byrd. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, “you just murdered her.”
Lt. Byrd was never charged or otherwise punished or disciplined for Ashli’s homicide.
On March 26, 2024, Judicial Watch filed its opposition to the Biden Justice Department’s request’s request to transfer venue of the case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Arguing against the change of venue, Judicial Watch points out that under federal law a “civil action against the United States may be brought in any judicial district in which the plaintiff resides,” and “a civil action on a tort claim against the United States may be prosecuted in the judicial district where the plaintiff resides.”
Judicial Watch argues:
Defendant’s position [to transfer venue] illustrates and underscores the prejudice and injustice that Plaintiffs would face if venue were transferred to the District of Columbia. Defendant mentions 80 Capitol Police officers and 60 Metropolitan Police officers that were injured and connects the deaths of three officers to the events on that day, thus connecting Ashli Babbitt to these deaths and other injuries, as if she caused them. The request for a change in venue is clearly influenced by Defendant’s strongest motivation for changing venue, which is to select the forum where it feels it would receive a favorable process and outcome based on adversity against January 6 participants. By its motion, Defendant hopes to unfairly and unjustly connect Ashli Babbitt to violence, injuries, and deaths for which she is blameless and connect her by association to thousands of individuals convicted of misdemeanors and felonies for which she was never charged and is unable to present a defense due to the lawless actions of one of Defendant’s employees in shooting and killing her.
During a recent sentencing hearing in the District of Columbia in United States v. Daniel Goodwyn … District Judge Reggie B. Walton made the following statement to the defendant and his counsel regarding the shooting of Ashli Babbitt:
THE COURT: You should not have been – you cannot convince me that somehow what she was doing was somehow justified and the police did not have a justification for taking the actions that they took. You can’t convince me of that.
Judge Walton’s statement evidences he has already predetermined a crucial issue in this case – whether Ashli Babbitt’s killing was justified.
According to Judicial Watch, Judge Walton made other biased comments on the record, including, “Well, she shouldn’t have been coming through the window,” and “this man who was protecting the Capitol ends up being called a thug … that is just mind boggling.” …
Read more about this lawsuit case here.
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They set up by they I mean Palosi and Schumer and their Democratic goons. They set up all activities on Jan 6th very precise and in depth and continue their false narratives constantly, Congress needs to secure all correspondence from Palosi, Schumer and others like Raskin and Jeffries which should be public record to see just what was discussed in say the weeks prior to Jan 6th. It could be very interesting. They should also look for burner phones and other E-mail accounts.