President Trump is considering financial compensation for pardoned defendants prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — and promised he would “look into” the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol Police officer in the chaos of that day.
The president told Newsmax in a Tuesday night interview there has been “talk” about paying the hundreds of his supporters who were charged with storming the Capitol in a haphazard attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
“A lot of the people that are in the government now talk about it because a lot of the people in government really like that group of people,” Trump said.
“I took care of them. I said I was going to and I did,” he said.
On Jan. 20, hours after being sworn in, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 defendants charged or convicted on counts related to the riot — including many who were already behind bars serving multi-year sentences.
“These people are incredible people,” Trump told Newsmax. “They were treated so unfairly, so horribly. Some of them didn’t even go into the building.”
Many of the rioters and their supporters, including Trump’s new top federal prosecutor in Washington, Ed Martin, have called for those charged or convicted in the riot to be given recompense, according to Politico.
Trump also said that he would be looking into the death of Ashli Babbitt, a 36-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot dead by US Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd as she tried to crawl through a broken window to enter the Speaker’s Lobby.
Babbitt’s family has filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the government.
Trump said he had not heard of the lawsuit until Tuesday’s interview, but said he would also “look into that,” calling himself a “big fan” of Babbitt.
“Ashli Babbitt was a really good person who was a big MAGA fan, Trump fan. And she was innocently standing there — they even say trying to sort of hold back the crowd. And a man did something to her that was unthinkable when he shot her,” the president said.
When Trump was asked if he would consider taking any action against Byrd — a federal employee — the president he was going to “look at that too” and raised questions about the officer’s reputation before moving on.
Earlier this month, the Trump Justice Department signaled it would support settlement talks with Babbitt’s family.
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