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Lawmaker who visited El Salvador to spring MS-13 gang member attacks Ashli Babbitt as a ‘domestic terrorist’
A 28-year-old second-term Democrat congressman from Florida launched the latest Democrat attack on Ashli Babbitt May 19, calling the late 14-year Air Force veteran a “domestic terrorist” who “attempted to overthrow our government” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, posted his statements on X. He was responding to an article in Rolling Stone on the alleged settlement of a $30 million wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch on behalf of Aaron Babbitt of San Diego and his late wife’s estate.
'I didn’t get a settlement. I didn’t get a bonus.'
“Ashli Babbitt was a domestic terrorist who attempted to overthrow our government via a violent insurrection at our nation’s Capitol,” Frost wrote. “The administration agreeing to pay her family $5 million of taxpayer money is disgraceful.”
Frost’s description was reminiscent of a controversial FBI Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide produced by the Biden administration, which claimed “militia violent extremists” consider Babbitt a “martyr.”
RELATED: Federal judge explodes in Ashli Babbitt court hearing as wrongful-death case slows
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) speaks at a rally to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia at Lafayette Park near the White House on May 1, 2025.Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
The Rolling Stone article repeated factual errors from the original Washington Post piece that disclosed the alleged settlement amount at less than $5 million. That figure has not been confirmed, as the agreement is not yet final, attorneys said.
“According to the Post, about a third of the settlement will go to attorneys fees and compensation for the involved conservative groups, including Judicial Watch,” Rolling Stone wrote.
This error was made and widely repeated by corporate media, despite May 12 federal court testimony by Babbitt attorney Robert Sticht stating that Judicial Watch would not receive any fees in the still-unsigned “settlement in principle.”
“And just so the court knows for the record and all the press who may be on the telephone, Judicial Watch does not a get fee out of this settlement,” Sticht told U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who proceeded to scold him for speaking to the press listening on the dial-in audio line.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton re-emphasized the point May 19 on X: “Contrary to initial WPOST report, @JudicialWatch is not getting a third (or any portion) of any settlement. We are representing Ashli’s family pro bono!”
The Rolling Stone article repeated another error made by the Washington Post, claiming Babbitt was shot in the neck. According to the autopsy done by the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Babbitt was shot in the left anterior shoulder with a single bullet from Capitol Police Lt. Michael L. Byrd’s 0.40-caliber Glock 22 service pistol.
Judicial Watch said Frost “is well known for self-absorbed antics to gain media attention, even when it does not involve his constituents or the area he was elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Sought release of MS-13 member
Most recently, Frost traveled to El Salvador seeking the release of the deported illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the violent Mara Salvatrucha “MS-13” gang whom U.S. law enforcement has tied to human trafficking. Garcia’s wife filed a restraining order against him for punching and scratching her and ripping off her shirt, according to Prince George’s County, Maryland, court records.
In his nascent political career, Frost worked on the failed 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then went to work for socialist Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and later worked for the American Civil Liberties Union. Frost was 25 when first elected to the House, representing parts of Orange County, Florida, around Orlando.
RELATED: Retiring Capitol Police chief takes shots at Jan. 6 protester Ashli Babbitt, settlement of civil lawsuit
Photos by Aaron Babbitt, Jayden X, Judicial Watch, and Sam Montoya
As word emerged of a possible settlement in the wrongful-death lawsuit, the knives came out against Babbitt from the left.
Retiring Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger circulated a statement May 2 on department letterhead stating he was “extremely disappointed” and “completely” disagrees with the U.S. Department of Justice decision to settle the civil suit. He described Babbitt as “a woman who attacked the U.S. Capitol.”
'I will take as many of you out as I can!'
Disgraced former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn stepped up the political rhetoric, opining on his 189,000-subscriber Substack that Babbitt chanted about hanging then-Vice President Mike Pence. He said she was “not a hero” but an “insurrectionist.”
There is no evidence that Babbitt had anything to do with chants about the vice president, according to video analysis of Babbitt’s path to the Capitol and up to the House entrance.
“I didn’t get a settlement. I didn’t get a bonus,” Dunn complained on Substack. “I didn’t even get a thank-you from many of the people who benefited from our sacrifice. I got threats. I got questioned. I got dragged through hearings and the court of public opinion. I’m still fighting to be heard and to have my full story respected.”
Dunn, a darling of the corporate press and its go-to source for all things about Jan. 6, never discusses the long list of lies and exaggerations he tells about his actions and behavior on Jan. 6.
Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker has chronicled Dunn’s losing battle with the truth in a series of videos, “A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn."
Among the more damning disclosures in the videos is that Dunn and former Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus gave false testimony in the first Oath Keepers trial that ran from Sept. 27 to Nov. 29, 2022.
Both men described an alleged angry confrontation with members of the Oath Keepers that never took place. Security video showed that at the time of the alleged confrontation, Lazarus wasn’t even in the Capitol, and by the time he reached Dunn, the Oath Keepers had exited the building.
RELATED: Damning video exposes former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn's tortured relationship with Jan. 6 truth
A group of Oath Keepers encountered Dunn at 2:44 p.m. in the Small House Rotunda on the second floor of the Capitol. Dunn was engaged in a an almost frantic shouting match with protesters. In one exchange, Dunn said, “I will take as many of you out as I can before you get to me!” according to Oath Keeper Kenneth Harrelson. Protesters were heard on video calling Dunn a “bully with a badge” and asking him if he planned to “kill us all.”
Oath Keepers stood in front of Dunn with their backs to him, pushing angry protesters away, video showed. He falsely told them that police officers were being carted away on stretchers across Capitol grounds.
In his first interview with the FBI in May 2021, Dunn said he allowed the Oath Keepers to stand guard in front of him. But in August 2021, the FBI called him in again and he changed his story, now claiming the interaction was strictly negative and no one helped him in any way.
Given the conflicting stories, Dunn claimed under oath that his negative encounter with men dressed in battle fatigues, ostensibly the Oath Keepers, took place one floor below, in the Crypt. Baker’s video investigation showed, however, that no Oath Keepers were in the Crypt during the entire period.
Defense attorney Brad Geyer, who represented Oath Keeper Harrelson at the trial, said the false testimony warranted a “a reversal of the convictions.” However, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta took no action after the alleged perjury was revealed.
The FBI Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide, which called Ashli Babbitt a “martyr” for violent extremists, was widely condemned for describing the Betsy Ross flag and the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag as terrorism symbols.FBI
Dunn never physically engaged with any rioters and lied about his whereabouts throughout the day, video showed. He apparently fabricated a story about a crowd of “20, 30, 40, as many as 50” protesters, led by a Hispanic woman wearing a “pink MAGA sweatshirt,” chanting the N-word at him in the Capitol.
While his fellow officers were battling to clear the Rotunda just after 3 p.m., Dunn stood off in a side hallway chatting with a female officer. His mask and uniform were not soaked with pepper spray as he claimed, and he didn’t engage in “hand-to-hand combat” with rioters, Baker’s investigation found.
Dunn also lied about lending lifesaving aid to protester Rosanne Boyland, helping to carry her lifeless body to an area outside the first-floor office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). Dunn’s colleague, Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, also lied about Dunn’s role, claiming the 6'7" private first class came down the steep stairs from the Crypt to the basement and helped carry Boyland.
Metropolitan Police Department bodycam proves, however, that Dunn never came down the stairs. When the cart carrying Boyland reached the top of the stairs, Dunn was standing behind other officers at least 15 feet away. He never approached the makeshift gurney carrying Boyland and followed rescuers from a distance.
His story about Boyland wearing a blue hoodie that he grabbed to get hold of and lift Boyland never happened. Her hoodie was lost before she was dragged into the Capitol. During extensive lifesaving efforts by Capitol Police Officer Connor Rhodes, U.S. Park Police medics, and MPD officers, Boyland was mostly topless as officers performed CPR and applied automated defibrillator shock pads.
Despite the devastating evidence of Dunn’s duplicity, the media continue to feature him, refusing to fact-check his claims and failing to produce video or other proof backing up Dunn’s stories about Jan. 6.
Facts ignored by the left
The two things the ongoing attacks on Babbitt have in common is that they are heavy on hyperbole and narrative, but devoid of facts and evidence.
Close examination of security video, bodycam video, and footage shot by journalists and other bystanders shows that Babbitt tried to prevent and stop rioting that broke out in the hallway outside the Speaker’s Lobby. She chastised three USCP officers guarding the doorway to “call f**king help” as they stood doing nothing as one wild agitator almost single-handedly created riot conditions.
Babbitt did not riot. She did not vandalize the building or harm anyone. Yet media have for more than four years assailed her as a “rioter” and “insurrectionist” who was part of a violent mob.
Babbitt, a former military policewoman, did the job the Capitol Police refused to do. She grabbed rioter Zachary Alam, spun him around, and punched him in the face, knocking off his glasses. That put an end to his spree of chaos, as Babbitt jumped up into the broken-out sidelight window and was immediately shot to death by USCP Lt. Michael L. Byrd.
Ashli Babbitt punches rioter Zachary Jordan Alam in the nose after he smashed out several windows in the entrance to the Speaker's Lobby at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was fatally shot seconds later.
Blaze News graphic from Sam Montoya photograph. Used with permission.
Alam has admitted it was his intent to climb into the window himself and that Babbitt’s actions saved his life at the cost of her own.
“Two individuals dislodged the glass panels in the lobby doors and the right door sidelight,” Judicial Watch wrote in a May 23 news release. “Lt. Byrd, the incident commander for the House that day, shot the unarmed Babbitt as she raised herself up into the opening of the right door sidelight.
“Byrd was not in uniform, did not identify himself as a police officer or otherwise make his presence known to Babbitt, nor did he give her any warnings or commands before shooting her dead,” Judicial Watch said.
Frost did not discuss Lt. Byrd’s significant disciplinary history that includes reckless handling of his department-issued sidearm, shooting into a fleeing vehicle while his neighbor was in the line of fire, berating a Montgomery County Police Department officer working security at a Maryland high school football game, and abandoning his post in the Speaker’s office for a cloakroom card game, then lying about it to internal affairs investigators, Blaze News learned.
“Frost fails to even mention Byrd’s unsettling history as a law enforcement officer, instead disgracing the memory of a deceased patriot who served her country,” Judicial Watch said. “Combined with the ardent defense of a wife-beating MS-13 gangbanger, the congressman has recently displayed appalling behavior unbecoming of an elected official.”
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