Bulwark Takes - Trump’s DOJ Paying Nearly $5M to Capitol Attacker’s Family

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Tim Miller breaks down the political and legal implications of Donald Trump’s Justice Department agreeing to pay nearly $5 million to the family of Ashli Babbitt, the woman fatally shot by police during the January 6 Capitol riot. Watch Michael Fanone's conversation with Ben Parker: https://youtu.be/h8x_E2L49rA

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than those taking a leading prenatal. Plus, it's designed to be gentle on the stomach. Ritual doesn't just have your back. They have the receipts. Get 25% off at ritual.com slash clinical. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hey, everybody. Tim Moe from The Bulwark here. We've got some breaking

news. The United States has agreed to pay about $5 million to the family of January 6th rioter Ashley Babbitt, who was shot fatally by police during the siege of the Capitol. This decision by the Trump Justice Department reverses the earlier position from the Biden Justice Department. And, you know, this whole thing just really stinks. If you add it to the total blanket pardon for all of the people who stormed the Capitol, even those who attacked police. And now you layer on top of that, that not only are people getting off scot-free, but that the U.S. is beginning to pay off the families of the attackers. Do you think Ashley Babbitt's going to be the last one?

Other people that suffered random injuries in their attack on the Capitol, you don't think that others are going to see this and decide that they want to get theirs? This has been a total Trump thing, and I think it's also important to remember, this is not just a TDS situation. People as Trump-curious or Trump-supportive just a tds situation uh people as as trump curious or trump supportive or trump lick spittily as kevin mccarthy were as recently as two years ago out there saying that the police officer in this case did the right thing you think ashley babbitt was murdered or you think the police officer who

shot her was doing his job i think the police officer did his job this month in the center republican uh from north car, Tom Tillis, was out there saying we've got to be very clear what happened, what happened on January 6th was wrong. We have to be very, very clear that what happened on January 6th was wrong. We could keep going down the line of this. You could do the cliche stuff, though. Liz Cheney, a strong conservative, talking about how horrible this was.

Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. But now it's like the state of position of our government. Not that like, oh, January 6th was something that got out of hand and some people did a bad thing. No, that's like the people that stormed the Capitol are the victims. That is the position of our government. The rioters who injured police, who injured police in some cases to such a degree that some lost their lives in the ensuing days, like Officer Brian Sicknick, that the attackers are the victims and that the government needs to pay them off. Your tax dollars, your tax dollars are going to pay the family of a woman that was climbing

through glass in the Capitol to try to overturn the election. You're paying for that. And this is total madness. And these guys, for all of their talking points about how they were radicalized by the BLM riots and how Kamala contributed to the legal defense fund of some of the Black Lives Matter protesters. It's like this isn't a case of contributing to a legal defense fund.

This is the case of the U.S. government paying a cash ransom to the people that stormed the Capitol. To the family of someone that stormed the Capitol, to the family of someone that stormed the Capitol. I just, how can you take seriously the claims that they want to back the blue? Or how can you take seriously, like, the claims that they were really, really angered by the Black Lives Matter movement you know because they care so deeply about you know law and order and

and you know and protecting law enforcement like they don't they don't believe any of that shit it's all about red team blue team it's all about shirts and skins you know it's sharks and jets It's that all the way down. now who was attacked, who faced a mob at the Capitol, was doing everything he could to try to do his job. And now the US government is saying that we need to pay for his negligence.

It is just a truly noxious, despicable move by this administration. And more is coming. This is where they're going. They've decided that they want to make sure people who are on their side get rewarded, even if they commit violent acts. And we saw it when we just saw recently Enrique Tarrio got to visit with Trump down at Mar-a-Lago. It doesn't matter. You know, they might say they're after gangbangers.

If you're a pro-Trump gang leader, you get to go to a fancy dinner. If you're the family member of somebody that got, that was part of the pro-Trump mob, pro-Trump gang, you might say, the targeted police and targeted the Capitol, you get a million-dollar payout, $5 million. This is how they're deciding to play it. We cannot let them have it any other way and try to spin it any other way and try to make it about any other broader principle. They have decided to weaponize law enforcement as an us versus them, where people on their side get rewarded, people on the other

side get targeted. And so this is just the latest step in that. And we'll be continuing to monitor it as it goes along. There's a great video over the weekend, my colleague Ben Parker talked to Michael Fanone about National Police Day. And Fanone has been so valiant and so steadfast in his advocacy on all this. I truly appreciate him. I hope people go and check out his video and go check out the other work done by some others. Harry Dunn is on Substack now. So go make sure to check those guys out and support them.

That's the latest news. Credit also to Spencer Hsu at the Washington Post who had the breaking news on this story a couple hours ago. We will continue to monitor the latest. Make sure to tell your friends about the bulwark. Come see us. Washington, D.C., World Pride, me, John Lovett, Sarah Longwell, some others. We'll be supporting an actual law and order effort.

We'll be supporting the legal team backing some of the Venezuelans who have been disappeared to El Salvador. So we'd love to see you all there. And as you know, I'm always here in my room, in my hole. So I'll be back soon with the latest breaking news with tomorrow's edition of the podcast. We'll see you all then. Peace.