The U.S. Air Force will provide Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt with military funeral honors, reversing a Biden-era decision that denied her family’s request, according to a legal group that has represented her family.
Judicial Watch, the conservative legal group, on Wednesday made public a letter from Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier, extending an offer to allow the special funeral procedures to take place.
“I understand that the family’s initial request was denied by Air Force leadership in a letter dated February 9, 2021,” Lohmeier wrote in the Aug. 15 letter shared by Judicial Watch. “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.”
He additionally extended an invitation to her mother and husband to meet him at the Pentagon, so he may offer his condolences.
The Hill requested comment from the Pentagon regarding the veracity of the letter.
Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was shot and killed by law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as she attempted to climb through a barricaded door to the Speaker’s lobby near the House chamber.
A month after the riot, an Air Force representative under former President Biden’s administration informed her family that military funeral honors were denied for her funeral “due to the circumstances preceding her death.”
“As a result, I have determined that military funeral honors would bring discredit upon the Air Force,” Brian Kelly, an Air Force lieutenant general, wrote in that letter.
An eligible veteran’s honor guard detail consists of at least two members of the armed forces, one of whom is a representative of the veteran’s service branch, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It will perform a ceremony including the playing of taps and the folding and presentation of the American flag to the next of kin.
“Ashli Babbitt’s family is grateful to President Trump, Secretary [Pete] 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 a statement.
In May, the government agreed to pay Babbitt’s family nearly $5 million as part of a settlement.
It came as the Trump administration has sought to unravel the Biden administration’s crackdown on those who participated in the riot.
Trump pardoned nearly all rioters on his first day back in the White House and fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases stemming from the attack.
The Air Force could not be reached for comment.
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