By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-15 16:40:18 | Updated at 2024-12-15 18:47:44
2 hours ago
Ashli Babbitt Shooter Protected by Pelosi? A Deep Dive into Michael Byrd's Checkered Past
Flopping Aces ^ | 12-14-24 | Steve Baker & Joseph M. Hanneman
Posted on 12/15/2024 8:37:36 AM PST by Starman417
The U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was recommended for termination in 2001 for abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom, then lying about it to Internal Affairs Division investigators, Blaze News has learned.
The 2001 investigation of Michael L. Byrd, 56, was the first known disciplinary case brought against the lieutenant who crept from his blind near the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, 2021, and shot Babbitt to death. The 2001 incident is the fourth such disciplinary case disclosed since Nov. 20.
A source with detailed knowledge of the Internal Affairs Division case told Blaze News that Byrd was charged with abandoning his post, eating and drinking at his post, and lying to investigators — a terminable offense. It is one of three Byrd disciplinary cases for which records could not be found when a House oversight subcommittee requested them in early 2024, the source said.
Byrd was assigned to the Speaker’s Office of U.S. Rep. Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) on the evening in question. During his break, Byrd went to play cards in a cloak room near the House Chamber, the source said.
Byrd went to relieve the officer who covered Hastert’s office during Byrd’s break, but then abandoned his post and returned to the cloakroom to play cards, the source told Blaze News.
“Well, the sergeant walks by and was like, ‘Man, there’s nobody in the Speaker’s Office,’” said the source, who has worked in the top levels of U.S. Capitol Police administration. “This is a big issue.”
An internal investigation was opened.
“Of course, we have cameras everywhere and we track him walking off post, going back to the cloakroom,” the source said. “And we talked to the other people in there and he was in there playing cards.”
Investigators also found that Byrd was eating and drinking at his post in the Speaker’s Office, activities forbidden by department policy, the source said.
“Supposed to be a bit of the decorum there, but he’s sitting in a chair eating and drinking a soda, which is a big taboo, especially back then,” the source said. “It’s the Speaker’s Office.”
Investigators confronted Byrd with their findings. He denied it all.
“Mike denies that he was supposed to be assigned to the post,” the source told Blaze News. “So therefore he couldn’t abandon the post. He denied eating and denied drinking on the post.”
Investigators already had the evidence they needed, but they gave Byrd a chance to come clean, the source said.
“They told him — and this is what we do when we’re getting ready to charge somebody — ‘We know different, Mike. There are video cameras up there.’ Mike still denies it.”
The USCP disciplinary officer recommended that Byrd be fired.
“So they charge him with eating, drinking on post, abandoning post,” the source said. “They charge him with untruthful statements with the recommendation to terminate.”
Even with the evidence and firing recommendation, Capitol Police administration did not part ways with Byrd.
“He ends up getting into some trouble, but they won’t terminate him,” the source said. “So therefore they didn’t want to move forward with the untruthful statements [charge], but that was still a sustained charge against him.”
The source questioned how records of the 2001 case and two other disciplinary cases brought against Byrd could be “missing,” as congressional investigators were told by the USCP in early 2024. There are too many intersecting emails and memos outside Byrd’s internal-affairs jacket for the record to be fully missing, the source said.
“That would’ve been documented so many different ways that it’d be impossible for them not to have it,” the source said.
“It’s funny to me that everyone knows Mike’s a liar and the case that sustains it that had all the evidence that shows he is a liar is something that Tad [DiBiase] and the department can’t find when there’s all these different records. If they just did a search on the emails, all this stuff, it would be in existence.”
Thomas A. “Tad” DiBiase is general counsel for U.S. Capitol Police.
Blaze News reached out to the Capitol Police and an attorney for Byrd but did not receive a reply by press time.
Concerns about promotion
As more details of Byrd’s work history emerge, a key Republican lawmaker expressed reservations about Byrd’s 2023 promotion to captain.“I have concerns about this decision, given Byrd’s lengthy disciplinary history and the apparent political influence of internal operational decisions related to Byrd following January 6, 2021,” U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.
Revelation of Byrd’s 2001 disciplinary case comes as congressional investigators disclosed the lengths Democrat lawmakers and Capitol Police went to after Jan. 6 to provide Byrd with income, security upgrades at his Maryland home, and months of free lodging at a secure military hotel at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Md.
Records obtained by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight showed top House Democrats worked with DiBiase to find ways to help Byrd financially in the months after he shot and killed Babbitt at the Capitol. The records were first disclosed by journalist John Solomon and Just the News.
Byrd was given $36,000 in unrestricted funds as a “retention bonus” in 2021, while other Capitol Police officers received around $3,000 each. Byrd was reimbursed for more than $21,000 in security upgrades for his personal residence in Prince George’s County.
Capitol Police paid to house Byrd at the Joint Base Andrews military facility from July 2021 until late January 2022 at a cost of more than $35,000, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch Inc. When he left the base for any reason, Byrd was provided with a Capitol Police dignitary protection detail, which a source told Blaze News could easily cost $425 per hour.
DiBiase met with Jamie Fleet, staff director for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to discuss options to help Byrd, according to an email uncovered by congressional investigators. Pelosi had earlier said that she wanted Byrd “taken care of,” said a Blaze News source who directly witnessed the statement during a meeting.
DiBiase suggested that they could place Byrd at one of the department’s “continuity sites,” but that would require a top-secret clearance. Continuity sites are maintained to ensure that Capitol Police could continue to operate and communicate in the event of a catastrophe in Washington, D.C.
“We believe it would be very difficult for him to obtain one, give that he has had significant financial issues in the past and is currently on the USCP Lewis List,” DiBiase wrote.
The Lewis List is a confidential database of police officers who have disciplinary records and could face added scrutiny if they were called as witnesses in criminal cases.
Capitol Police considered assigning Byrd as head of security at the USCP Alternate Communications Facility, which is located outside the capital region. Under such a plan, Byrd could be awarded a per-diem payment for expenses. Sources told Blaze News that other Capitol Police officers assigned to the ACF have not been given per-diem payments.
Avoid fitness-for-duty test
DiBiase wrote that the USCP could help Byrd obtain mental health assistance, “but not move forward on a FFDE [fitness for duty evaluation] since a negative one could mean we should not allow him to carry our USCP-issued firearm if he is not fit to be a police officer.“We believe it is more important for him to have his weapon and the ability to defend himself,” DiBiase wrote. “We have no indication Mike intends to harm himself and he has access to personal weapons, so even if we were to remove his weapon, there would still be some danger.”
According to Loudermilk’s Nov. 20 letter, the Capitol Police had planned to loan a shotgun to Byrd, but he failed the federal background check and did not qualify after shotgun training.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: babbitt; byrd; j6
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1 posted on 12/15/2024 8:37:36 AM PST by Starman417
To: Starman417
2 posted on 12/15/2024 8:39:23 AM PST by nopardons
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