Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit Demanding FBI Release Ashli Babbitt Files

Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over any files it has about Ashli Babbitt and her husband Aaron, claiming the agency is engaged in a “cover-up” in her death. Babbitt, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was shot and killed during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the Capitol.

The watchdog group, working with Aaron Babbitt as the executor of his wife’s estate, filed its suit Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, according to the Washington Examiner.

Judicial Watch is seeking all information the FBI has about the Babbitts and its reports of Ashli’s shooting death outside the House Speaker’s Lobby. She was shot and killed by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who remains on the force and has since been promoted.

The organization, along with Aaron Babbitt, also recently filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the government in the death of Ashli, 35.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed Friday claims that the FBI has refused two demands for files and has pushed back against the Justice Department’s call for FOIA compliance.

“The FBI has failed to produce the requested records or demonstrate that the requested records are lawfully exempt from production, or notify plaintiffs of the scope of any responsive records they intend to produce or withhold and the reasons for any withholdings,” the filing said.

Judicial Watch leader Tom Fitton commented that Babbitt “was the only homicide victim on Jan. 6, yet the FBI has been illicitly hiding its files [for a year] … why the cover-up?”