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Former President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that the US Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt in the Jan.6 riot on Capitol Hill was the “security chief” of a Democratic member ” high ranking “Congress.
This is false, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the matter.
The official said the officer who shot Babbitt, 35, was not a member of a security service provided to a specific member of Congress, adding that the officer had not yet returned to work.
Trump made the statements on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures program, hosted by Maria Bartiromo.
“Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and why,” Trump said.
Bartiromo asked Trump who he said shot him.
“I will tell you that they know who shot Ashli Babbitt. They are protecting that person,” he replied. “I also heard that he was the security chief of a certain senior official – a Democrat – and we’ll see, because it will come out. It will come out.”
Bartiromo later said: “I want you to know that my team contacted Senator Chuck Schumer’s office to check what they can find out about who shot Ashli Babbitt. Chuck Schumer’s office. “
Trump interrupted by saying, “I wonder why.”
Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bartiromo has made his own false statements about the circumstances surrounding the attack on Capitol Hill by a pro-Trump mob, claiming that Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, went to a “peaceful protest” and was shot ” as she tried to get out of a window. “
A Fox News representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Video of the shooting showed Babbitt in front of a crowd of rioters trying to get through a door leading to where members of Congress were being evacuated from the House side of the building. The Justice Department discovered that Babbitt had “attempted to go through one of the doors where the glass had been shattered.”
The Justice Department issued a statement in April clearing the officer of any wrongdoing.
The statement stated in part that “the investigation did not reveal any evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress and others evacuating the chamber of the House. “
Babbitt was a staunch Fox News watcher, according to thousands of tweets sent to Fox News hosts, NBC News reported. Last year, she started tweeting with QAnon accounts and using QAnon hashtags. QAnon conspiracy theorists subscribe to a false belief that leading Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are ritually sacrificing children and that Trump is fighting to stop him.
His death was presented as an unjust murder by some far-right members who sought to downplay the violence during the storming of the Capitol, and they demanded that the identity of the gunman be made public. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, said Babbitt’s death was “an execution,” and accused the officer who shot him of “waiting” to do so.
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