'Open secret': Who really killed Ashli Babbitt?

FPI / July 2, 2021

The refusal of U.S. authorities to reveal the identity of the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has neither ended the controversy or stopped people from talking.

Previous reports said the officer who pulled the trigger was detailed with U.S. Capitol Police.

A new report by SpectatorWorld.com, however, cites sources from the intelligence community as saying the shooter was a member of then-vice president Mike Pence’s protective detail.

That unit is provided by the Secret Service, not the Capitol Police.

This is "basically an open secret" in the intelligence community, a source told Spectator World's Cockburn.

"The video of Babbitt being shot as she attempts to climb through a broken window that leads to the Speaker’s Gallery shows a man in a suit jacket holding the gun," Cockburn noted.

"The Capitol Police do have plainclothes officers, but it is much more common for the Secret Service’s protective details to be spotted in suits while tailing the president or vice president."

According to Cockburn's report, “law enforcement sources suggested that the Capitol Police Department and Department of Justice have publicly identified the shooter as a Capitol Police officer in order to protect the reputation of the Secret Service.”

"A cover-up of this nature would also explain why the government hasn’t been forthcoming with other information about the alleged Capitol Police officer who they say shot Babbitt," Cockburn writes.

"Police officers who are involved in shootings are almost always identified publicly. The unnamed officer’s lawyer says that his client is being kept anonymous due to threats against his life. Babbitt’s family, however, argues that they have a right to know who shot and killed their beloved relative. Her husband, Aaron Babbitt, is suing Washington DC for access to records that would supposedly reveal the name of the officer."

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Cockburn suggests that the government has not been open and honest about the shooter’s identity due to these revelations.

The report continues, “Michael Brendan Dougherty floated the idea that Babbitt was shot by Secret Service on his Twitter account in early June, writing in response to Aaron Babbitt’s lawsuit, ‘I mean, at this point you have to suspect that it’s not a Capitol cop.’ He replied ‘SS’ when asked who he thought could have been responsible instead.”

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