Air Force Offers Military Honors for Slain Capitol Rioter
By Reuters | 29 Aug, 2025

In another sign that normal US values are being subverted under the Trump administration, a rioter who would normally have been convicted of several felonies, including treason, is being treated like a martyr.

The U.S. Air Force said on Friday it was offering military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, a supporter of President Donald Trump who was shot and killed by a police officer during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Babbitt, 35, a U.S. Air Force veteran who lived in California, was fatally shot in the shoulder while she tried to enter a room near the House of Representatives during the riot.

"After reviewing the circumstances of (senior airman) Babbitt’s death, the Air Force has offered Military Funeral Honors to (senior airman) Babbitt’s family," the Air Force said in a statement. 

The funeral honors would mark the latest gesture of support from Trump’s administration toward those who stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying the Republican president's 2020 election loss.

Trump made false claims that his 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden was due to voter fraud.

He and his supporters have sought to portray Babbitt as a martyr who was unjustly killed as she attempted to climb through a broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker's Lobby, a few feet from where members of Congress were waiting to be evacuated to safety during the attack.

An internal investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police cleared the officer who shot Babbitt of wrongdoing in 2021 and said he would not face internal discipline.

More than 1,500 people were criminally charged for participating in the riot. Trump pardoned nearly all of them, and released those who had been imprisoned.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali in TorontoEditing by Matthew Lewis)