Restoration of military honors for Ashli Babbitt strikes back against a tide of Jan. 6 lies

Aaron Babbitt has for more than four and a half years kept an empty memorial flag case awaiting the day he receives military honors from the U.S. Air Force for his late wife, Ashli.

“Over these years, that’s been my top priority,” Babbitt told Blaze News in an interview. “I still have that flag case sitting in my apartment right now. I always knew I was going to get it filled one way or another, especially after President Trump got re-elected.”

‘I love that they’re so upset. I find it extremely satisfying.’

On Feb. 9, 2021, now-retired Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, an Air Force personnel bureaucrat, wrote to Babbitt informing him that there would be no funeral honors for the veteran gunned down by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd at 2:44 p.m. on Jan. 6.

Fifty-four months later, U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Matthew L. Lohmeier reversed that decision, telling the late senior airman’s family that she would, indeed, receive military honors.

“I am persuaded that the previous determination was incorrect,” Lohmeier wrote to Aaron Babbitt and Micki Witthoeft, Ashli’s mother. “Additionally, I would like to invite you and your family to meet me at the Pentagon to personally offer my condolences.”

The letter prompted an emotional reaction from Babbitt, himself a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

RELATED: Feds settle multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the death of Ashli Babbitt

U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Matthew L. Lohmeier (left) on Aug. 15, 2025, reversed a February 2021 order by Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly to deny military funeral honors to Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt.U.S. Air Force photos

“I obviously shed tears,” he said. “My whole thing has always been fighting for Ashli’s character and making sure people know who she really was and talking back against the untruths and slander and smear job that’s been waged on her.”

Babbitt said he was not surprised to see the decision prompt some unhinged reactions.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling took the low road in an op-ed published in Bill Kristol’s neocon journal the Bulwark. Hertling called the decision to grant military honors “obscene” and made the specious claim that Ashli Babbitt died trying to overturn the Constitution.

Political commentator Sarah Elizabeth “S.E.” Cupp went even farther off the ledge, likening Ashli Babbitt to two notorious serial killers. “I don’t frankly care that she served,” Cupp said on CNN. “So did David Berkowitz. So did Jeffrey Dahmer. So did Benedict Arnold.”

Cupp’s emotional meltdown further claimed that Babbitt, 35, was “ramming an American flag at a police officer in an attempt to overthrow the government.”

The problem with the statements from Hertling and Cupp is that they are predicated on lies.

Ashli Babbitt did not ram a flag at anyone. She did not riot. She certainly was not trying to “overthrow the government.” In fact, she was the only person in the crowded hallway outside the House Speaker’s Lobby who tried to stop the rioting, vandalism, and violence.

‘Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot. Officers ignored Ashli.’

When all else failed and out-of-control rioter Zachary Jordan Alam had smashed out multiple windows with a helmet, Babbitt spun him around and punched him in the nose, knocking off his glasses. That ended Alam’s violent rampage.

RELATED: Capitol Police name permanent chief hours after union slams controversial interim pick

Ashli Babbitt punches rioter Zachary Jordan Alam in the nose after he smashed out several windows in the entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was fatally shot seconds later. Blaze News graphic from Sam Montoya photograph. Used with permission.

Babbitt then tried to escape the mayhem by climbing into one of the broken-out windows. She was immediately gunned down by Byrd, lying in wait from a hidden position, out of her field of view with his finger already on the trigger of his Glock service weapon.

Byrd, who has a decades-long disciplinary record including negligence with a firearm, took 11 seconds to collect his thoughts. Then he went on Capitol Police radio and lied, claiming “shots are being fired at us” and “we’re prepared to fire back at them,” audio recordings showed.

Aaron Babbitt knows all too well how the keepers of the Jan. 6 narrative have lied about his wife from the very second Byrd emerged from his hidden position and put an end to her life.

Seeing the same people who have lied about Ashli Babbitt now clutching their pearls over her military honors brings a wry smile to Aaron Babbitt’s face.

“I love that they’re so upset,” Babbitt said. “I find it extremely satisfying.”

Letter to defense secretary

The effort to get military honors restored began in July, when Judicial Watch senior counsel Robert Sticht sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sticht noted the nearly $5 million civil lawsuit settlement the federal government agreed to in June. He also outlined the clemency and pardon declaration issued by President Trump on Jan. 20, 2025.

“It is impossible to reconcile Gen. Kelly’s denial of military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt’s funeral with President Trump’s grant of clemency to all individuals accused or convicted of offenses related to events at or near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021,” Sticht wrote. “Gen. Kelly’s refusal to provide military funeral honors was part of the ‘grave national injustice’ that President Trump ended by granting clemency.”

The denial of honors “cannot be reconciled with this landmark legal settlement,” Sticht said. “Many well-documented facts now clearly show that the fatal shooting was not justified.”

Sticht outlined facts that are almost always ignored by the left. As a highly trained military police officer, Ashli Babbitt quickly realized that the crowd gathering in the hallway entrance to the Speaker’s Lobby was going to be trouble. She rebuked three U.S. Capitol Police officers standing guard at the entrance, telling them to “call f**king help!” video showed. She tried to prevent the violence.

“Ashli was begging officers to call for backup before she was shot,” Sticht wrote. “Officers ignored Ashli.”

‘You don’t even know what her actions were. So I knew it was a political hit job.’

When Babbitt decided to escape the hallway by starting to climb through a broken-out window frame, she could not see Byrd, Sticht wrote. “Ashli never saw Lt. Byrd because he was hidden from her view,” Sticht said. “She was ambushed and defenseless. Multiple witnesses at the scene yelled, ‘You just murdered her!’”

RELATED: Federal judge explodes in Ashli Babbitt court hearing as wrongful-death case slows

U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd appears to have his finger on the trigger of his service weapon while walking on the U.S. House floor as rioters break windows at the House entrance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images; graphic overlay by Blaze News

Sticht suggested that if the fatal shooting was justified, there would not have been an immediate cover-up.

“The official coverup for the unlawful shooting began immediately,” Sticht wrote. “Within a minute after shooting Ashli, Lt. Byrd used his radio to communicate far and wide that he was being shot at and preparing to shoot back, which was a blatant lie he told to cover up his unjustified use of deadly force against Ashli.”

Byrd’s name was hidden from the public for nearly nine months after the shooting. He was housed in secret at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at taxpayer expense. Byrd’s “history of dangerous and incompetent behavior involving use of deadly force, mishandling his service weapon and other misconduct” were also covered up, Sticht said.

Witthoeft did her part to secure reinstatement of her daughter’s military honors by going straight to President Trump. One day she watched the president holding a press gaggle outside the White House on live television. She waited until he was safely aboard Marine One and then called his cell phone.

Aaron Babbitt retold the story: “I called him and he answered. I was just planning on leaving a message, but he answered the phone and said, ‘Micki, I was just thinking about you. I was going to give you a call.’”

Witthoeft told the president about the letter to Hegseth and about her son-in-law’s empty flag case. “I’m going to look into that,” Trump told her, according to Aaron Babbitt. “Then I was told that it was made an actionable item by the president,” Babbitt said.

‘I still want Michael Byrd in jail for the rest of his life.’

Babbitt said he believes the original denial of military honors was a political one and not based on what Ashli actually did at the Capitol.

“It was a vicious blow while we were already down,” he said. “It was purposeful. It was calculated, because there’s no reason to do that.

“Ashli was never charged for a crime that day,” Babbitt said. “You can’t charge her posthumously. So you can’t tell me that you’re denying it based on her actions at the Capitol when, a month later, you don’t even know what her actions were. So I knew it was a political hit job.”

Military security

Ashli Babbitt enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating in 2003 from El Capitan High School in Lakeside, Calif. She graduated from basic training in August 2004 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Her first duty station was Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska.

She deployed at least four times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. She worked in security forces doing convoy security operations, base entry control, force protection, personal security, and embassy security operations. She provided security for detainees at Camp Bucca Joint Operations Base in Umm Qasr, Iraq.

Camp Bucca was a brutal duty assignment. She had to guard jihadis who would gladly have cut her throat if they escaped their confines.

“It was just all detainees that they would bring in. There was CIA coming in all the time,” Aaron Babbitt said. “Black Hawks coming in, dropping people off, taking people out.

RELATED: Ashli Babbitt stood up to him — now J6er 'Helmet Boy' faces new charges

Senior Airman Ashli Babbitt was commended in December 2005 for boosting troop morale by Army Gen. John Abizaid (fourth from left), chairman of U.S. Central Command.Photo courtesy of Micki Witthoeft

“Lines of SUVs coming in, taking people out, bringing people in, riots,” he said. “They kill each other. They threatened to kill our forces.”

On one occasion, Ashli and another female military policewoman came upon three detainees who escaped their cells by tunneling under the fence. “They got into a hand-to-hand fistfight with three of them before the guys in the tower could run down and help them,” Aaron Babbitt said. “So it’s two females fighting three grown men.”

In Iraq in December 2005, Babbitt caught the attention of U.S. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command. His convoy was passing through, and Gen. Abizaid noticed Babbitt holding up a cardboard Merry Christmas sign on the airfield for arriving and departing pilots and crew.

The general “was so impressed with her way of boosting troop morale that he stopped his convoy to meet and commend Ashli for her performance,” Witthoeft said. “General Abizaid commended Ashli for her hard work and excellence.”

Lawsuit settlement

The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to settle Babbitt’s $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the federal government for slightly less than $5 million in June 2025. President Trump was made aware that the DOJ was still defending the Capitol Police lieutenant who killed Babbitt during an interview conducted by Greg Kelly of Newsmax.

“The president said, ‘I was not aware of that. I'll look into that,’” Aaron Babbitt said. “And I felt like at that moment, when the president says he’s going to look into something, that means all the staffers in the background just got an action item. So the whole mood kind of changed that point.”

Aaron Babbitt said he is satisfied with the settlement negotiated between the government and attorneys for Judicial Watch Inc., which represented him and his late wife’s estate in the lawsuit.

“It’s never been about money,” he said. “I have no clue about the process or what is good and what’s not, but I am satisfied. I’ve been told that that’s a pretty high number for a federal tort claim.”

RELATED: Retiring Capitol Police chief takes shots at Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt, settlement of civil lawsuit

Even though she did no rioting on Jan. 6, corporate media continue to paint Ashli Babbitt as a violent person who led a mob.Blaze News graphic

Babbitt said he’s looking to see the DOJ conduct a new use-of-force investigation of Byrd, whom the government declined to prosecute for what the lawsuit called an “ambush murder.”

“I still want Michael Byrd in jail for the rest of his life,” Babbitt said.

Byrd was never subjected to questioning by internal affairs detectives. His only public comments on the shooting were made on national television to Lester Holt of NBC News. Byrd said firing his Glock at Babbitt was a “last resort,” although he admitted he could not tell if the person emerging through the broken window was male or female or in possession of any kind of weapon. Babbitt was not armed.

As for the vitriol spewed by the likes of S.E. Cupp and much of the corporate media, Aaron Babbitt said he lost the ability to be shocked long ago. He said he became desensitized amid the death threats, harassing phone calls, and the many people who emailed him photos of his dying wife on the floor outside the Speaker’s Lobby.

“I know she’s dead. I know she’s not hurting any more,” Babbitt said. “And that means more to me than anything. She’s not in any pain.

“So people, they’re awful sometimes,” he said. “It is what it is. You’ve just got to be a better person.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!