Former President Donald Trump called the mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed in the January 6 Capitol riot, saying that the treatment of participants is “a disgrace.”
Mediaite reported that Trump phoned into a rally outside of a Washington, D.C., jail where January 6 defendants are being held. The phone call went to Micki Witthoeft, the mother of slain incursion participant Ashli Babbitt. Witthoeft put the phone up to the microphone, sharing the call with the other protesters.
“It’s a terrible thing that has happened to a lot of people that are being treated very, very unfairly,” Trump said. “We love Ashli, and it was so horrible what happened to her. That man [who] shot Ashli is a disgrace and then he goes on television and it looks like he was actually bragging about it.”
Trump then spoke about the treatment of January 6 participants who have been jailed.
“I want to tell everybody that’s listening, we’re with you. We’re working with a lot of different people on this,” Trump said. “We can’t let this happen. This has never happened before.”
Trump said that the defendants are being put under different treatment from other protesters and rioters.
“You look at all of the riots that took place for the last long period of time, not just in 2020, the last long period of time, and almost nothing has happened to those people,” he said. “What they’re doing here is a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to our country and it just cannot be allowed to happen and it cannot be allowed to continue.”
Without citing specifics, Trump said, “Everybody’s working on it, and I very much appreciate, Micki, you’re asking me to just speak to everybody.”
Trump has said he is “financially supporting” some January 6 defendants and that he would “very strongly” and “very favorably” consider pardons for those charged if he is elected president in 2024.
Trump concluded by saying, “God bless everybody. We are working very hard.”
Witthoeft thanked Trump for calling, adding, “I know the men inside appreciate you as I do.”
In a later interview, she said the call was important.
“It means a lot to me to know he’s supporting the J6ers and knows the corruption on the other side and understands that this is part of our path going forward is to take care of these men,” Witthoeft said.
Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, who was cleared of any wrongdoing. However, her death was revisited by The Epoch Times in a documentary called “The Real Story of January 6.”
In it, Stan Kephart, whose credentials include 42 years of law enforcement service and more than 350 court appearances as an expert witness on police conduct, made commentary on the killing.
“My conclusion … based on what I saw and observed in the video clips is that Ashli Babbitt was murdered,” Kephart said. “She was shot and killed under color of authority by an officer who violated not only the law but his oath and committed an arrestable offense.”
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