{"id":9404,"date":"2025-05-19T21:01:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T21:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/outgoing-capitol-police-chief-blasts-reported-settlement-in-jan-6-shooting\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T21:01:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T21:01:53","slug":"outgoing-capitol-police-chief-blasts-reported-settlement-in-jan-6-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/outgoing-capitol-police-chief-blasts-reported-settlement-in-jan-6-shooting\/","title":{"rendered":"Outgoing Capitol Police chief blasts reported settlement in Jan. 6 shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police issued an unusual public statement Monday criticizing a reported settlement between Justice Department and the family of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/05\/02\/trump-administration-reaches-settlement-in-principle-with-rioter-shot-by-cop-on-jan-6-00324453\" target=\"_blank\">Ashli Babbitt<\/a>, who was shot and killed on Jan. 6, 2021, by an officer guarding the House chamber. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement,&#8221; Chief Thomas Manger said, noting that a prior DOJ investigation found no wrongdoing by police. &#8220;This settlement sends a chilling message to law enforcement nationwide, especially to those with a protective mission like ours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2025\/05\/19\/ashli-babbitt-lawsuit-settlement\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported Monday<\/a> that Justice Department attorneys and Babbitt&#8217;s family had reached the settlement. <\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department closed its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/pr\/department-justice-closes-investigation-death-ashli-babbitt\" target=\"_blank\">investigation<\/a> into the officer, U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, in April 2021, and an internal Capitol Police investigation also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/08\/23\/capitol-police-clear-officer-shooting-capitol-rioter-506596\" target=\"_blank\">cleared him of wrongdoing<\/a>. Byrd, a decades-long veteran of the force, shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through a barricaded door just a few steps from the House floor. He went into hiding for months after the attack amid death threats and racist threats against him and his family. <\/p>\n<p>Since then, Babbitt&#8217;s death has become a rallying cry on the far right, with President Donald Trump boosting the cause of Jan. 6 rioters and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2024\/10\/jan-6-capitol-attack-ashli-babbitt-dc-residents\/679563\/\" target=\"_blank\">calling Byrd<\/a> a &#8220;disgrace.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Manger \u2014 a former chief of the departments in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland \u2014 took over the Capitol Police in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, is set to retire later this month. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police issued an unusual public statement Monday criticizing a reported settlement between Justice Department and the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed on Jan. 6, 2021, by an officer guarding the House chamber. &#8220;I am extremely disappointed and disagree with this settlement,&#8221; Chief Thomas Manger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}