On the second anniversary of the failed January 6 coup d’etat in Washington DC, Micki Witthoeft, the mother of slain January 6 terrorist Ashli Babbitt, was arrested by Capitol Police Lieutenant Ryan Schauf for refusing to move to the sidewalk.
Babbitt was shot and killed as part of a mob of terrorists who supported Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and breached the United States Capitol building while Congress was voting to certify the victory of Joe Biden.
Exactly two years after her daughter was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer defending the Capitol, Witthoeft, 58, was part of a group of demonstrators who were illegally blocking traffic outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Independence Avenue.
When officers gave multiple warnings to the group to get out of the road or face arrest, Capitol Police said Witthoeft would not comply and instead, she turned around with her hands behind her back, asking officers to arrest her.
Witthoeft was arrested around 1:45 p.m. and charged with obeying an order, as well as blocking and obstructing roadways. She was processed and released Friday afternoon after receiving a citation to appear in court.
“The officers and officials told the group to get out of the road or the group would be arrested. The sidewalk was open. A woman in the group was given multiple warnings to get out of the road. Instead of getting out of the road, the woman refused to leave, turned around with her hands behind her back, and asked to be arrested,” said a statement from the United States Capitol Police.
“Around 1:45 p.m., the woman was arrested for two Capitol Traffic Regulations – §16.3.20 Obey An Order, as well as §16.3.40 Blocking And Obstructing Roadways. The person was identified as 58-year-old Micki Witthoeft,” said the United States Capitol Police release.
Witthoeft’s daughter, Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was shot in the Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, as she attempted to climb through an opening in a barricaded door where a glass panel had broken out.
Babbitt was shot in the shoulder or neck by United States Capitol Police (USCP) Lieutenant Michael Byrd as she attempted to climb through a shattered window of a barricaded door, which led to the chamber where members of Congress were being protected from the violent horde that was incited by Trump earlier in the day.
The 14-year Air Force veteran was unarmed but several video recordings show her trying to climb through a broken window at the front of a throng consisting of part of the more than 1,000 terrorists who stormed the building.
As she struggled financially, Babbitt came to embrace the radical right, support Trump and start following false conspiracy theories. In November 2019, Babbitt tweeted about Pizzagate, a bizarre and implausible conspiracy theory that claimed senior Democrats were operating a child sex trafficking ring.
By February 2020, Babbitt publicly affirmed her support for QAnon, a broader far-right conspiracy theory that expanded Pizzagate’s claims by adding the concept of a worldwide cabal of Jewish, Satan-worshipping child abusers whom Trump is secretly fighting.
One customer recalled having stopped doing business with the company in 2020 after Babbitt unexpectedly delivered a political rant over the telephone.
Continuing his pattern of lies, Trump claimed Babbitt was “murdered at the hands of someone who should never have pulled the trigger of his gun.”
Various reviews found that Byrd was justified in shooting Babbitt, who was outside the Speaker’s lobby, which leads to the House chamber, along with other terrorists who had cried out to “hang Mike Pence” and harm other elected officials.
A joint session of Congress was forced to evacuate the House and Senate chambers as a mob of hundreds of people invaded the building, temporarily derailing efforts to confirm President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The U.S. Capitol Police Department said that it would not discipline him following an internal investigation of the Jan. 6 shooting and the federal Department of Justice said it would not pursue criminal charges against the officer.