Ashli Babbitt’s family will receive $5 million settlement from President Donald Trump’s administration stemming from her death on Jan. 6, 2021. One Capitol police officer is calling that settlement a betrayal.
This week, the Trump administration agreed to settle the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Babbitt’s family. A Capital officer shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby during the U.S. Capitol riot.
Former U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who retired after being injured during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, told WTOP the $5 million settlement is like a slap in the face from the Trump administration.
“He claims that he’s the biggest supporter of police, the rule of law, law and order,” Gonell said.
“And yet he pardoned the people who assaulted police officers, including myself. He went ahead and pardoned the same people who assaulted us without regard of the violent crimes that they committed. And now he announced that this settlement is going ahead. $5 million. It is a betrayal. If that’s not a betrayal, then what is so whenever he say that slogan, that political slogan.”
Gonell continued with: “I support the police, I back the blue, I don’t believe any of the [expletive] he says.”
The officer who shot Babbitt was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which concluded that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The Capitol Police also cleared the officer.
Babbitt’s family filed the wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government in January and originally sought $30 million.
In the aftermath of the riot, 1,500 criminal cases have been brought to court with more than 900 people pleading guilty and roughly 200 convicted.
“They could claim that they are the victims that were unjustly mistreated,” Gonell said. “Most of them had the day in court, and they recorded themselves violently attacking the Capitol, violently attacking the officers. They want to be seen as victims, and they are not.”
Gonell said he lost his career due to the riot. Lost his health. Nearly lost his life.
“I try to avoid following the news,” he said. “It’s personal to me. Because I nearly died on Jan. 6.”
WTOP’s Nick Iannelli and Ciara Wells and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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