A chilling statement by former President Donald Trump attacking the police officer who fatally shot Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt is obviously a “threat,” warned former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

In an interview on CNN Thursday, McCabe blasted Trump’s comments as “incredibly dangerous.”

“We know this for a fact. This isn’t something we’re theorizing about,” he added, noting the effect Trump’s “words have on his most diehard and emotional supporters.”

Trump said in a statement posted to Twitter by his paid aide Liz Harrington on Wednesday that “we know who he is,” referring to the unidentified officer who killed Babbitt.

He added: “The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!”

McCabe noted: “Let’s face it, when he says, ‘We know who you are,’ that’s a threat. That’s the same sort of language that a mob boss or a drug kingpin would use to threaten a subordinate. ... So you have the former president of the United States threatening members of law enforcement. It’s just outrageous.”

Babbitt was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she climbed through a smashed window on Jan. 6 while lawmakers were being evacuated in the Capitol riot. A disturbing video of the mob outside the barrier Babbitt breached and Babbitt’s shooting can be seen here.

The officer was cleared of any charges in the death of the 35-year-old Air Force veteran and ardent Trump supporter. A number of lawmakers have hailed the police officer as a hero who saved lives that day.

Former Capitol Police Captain Terrence Gainer also said on CNN that he views Trump’s remarks as a threat to the officer.

“I do believe that officer is at risk, could be at risk, his family could be at risk if his name gets out in the way the [former] president is suggesting,” said Gainer.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Trump’s remarks about the officer “disgusting,” “vile” and “wholly unacceptable” on Thursday.

Trump’s chilling comment to his extremist followers comes just as the Department of Homeland Security is warning of an increased potential for violence due to Trump and his supporters’ baseless election fraud claims.

The DHS is seeing an increase in calls for “violence in response to the unsubstantiated claims of fraud related to the 2020 election and the alleged ‘reinstatement’ of former President Trump,” a spokesperson told NBC News this week.

Trump is supposed to be banned from Twitter, but his paid aide posts all of his comments — often even before or if they appear anywhere else — on her Twitter account. Twitter has taken no action against Harrington, even though the company claims to have a policy against threats and against accounts brazenly posting messages from banned users.

Twitter ignored multiple requests from HuffPost to comment. Several Twitter users have reported Harrington’s reposted Trump comments to Twitter as both a threat and an obvious dodge of Twitter’s ban.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges against the U.S. Capitol Police officer involved in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, the Office announced today.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and the Civil Rights Division, with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD), conducted a thorough investigation of Ms. Babbitt’s shooting. Officials examined video footage posted on social media, statements from the officer involved and other officers and witnesses to the events, physical evidence from the scene of the shooting, and the results of an autopsy. Based on that investigation, officials determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. Officials from IAD informed a representative of Ms. Babbitt’s family today of this determination.

The investigation determined that, on January 6, 2021, Ms. Babbitt joined a crowd of people that gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election. Inside the Capitol building, a Joint Session of Congress, convened to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, was underway. Members of the crowd outside the building, which was closed to the public during the Joint Session, eventually forced their way into the Capitol building and past U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers attempting to maintain order. The Joint Session was stopped, and the USCP began evacuating members of Congress.

The investigation further determined that Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside “Speaker’s Lobby,” which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the time, the USCP was evacuating Members from the Chamber, which the mob was trying to enter from multiple doorways. USCP officers used furniture to barricade a set of glass doors separating the hallway and Speaker’s Lobby to try and stop the mob from entering the Speaker’s Lobby and the Chamber, and three officers positioned themselves between the doors and the mob. Members of the mob attempted to break through the doors by striking them and breaking the glass with their hands, flagpoles, helmets, and other objects. Eventually, the three USCP officers positioned outside the doors were forced to evacuate. As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out. An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor. A USCP emergency response team, which had begun making its way into the hallway to try and subdue the mob, administered aid to Ms. Babbitt, who was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.

The focus of the criminal investigation was to determine whether federal prosecutors could prove that the officer violated any federal laws, concentrating on the possible application of 18 U.S.C. § 242, a federal criminal civil rights statute. In order to establish a violation of this statute, prosecutors must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officer acted willfully to deprive Ms. Babbitt of a right protected by the Constitution or other law, here the Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to an unreasonable seizure. Prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so “willfully,” which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that the officer acted with a bad purpose to disregard the law. As this requirement has been interpreted by the courts, evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent required under Section 242.

The investigation revealed no evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242. Specifically, the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber. Acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences to Ms. Babbitt’s family, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Department of Justice have therefore closed the investigation into this matter.

highdesert wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 11:24 am People make comments about shootings all the time, McCabe is a talking head on CNN. McCabe became acting FBI director after Comey was fired and McCabe was fired by Trump, who then nominated Wray. McCabe was dragged through the mud by Trump's DOJ until 2020, he's not an objective source.

The reported Capitol Police lieutenant who shot Babbitt, was cleared by an internal investigation. It's clear from all the video that Babbitt was breaking into a secure area in the Capitol and was shot and it appears to have been a justified shooting. We all knew immediately after it happened that Babbitt would be portrayed as a martyr for the cause. Trump is entitled to criticize it, it's his 1st Amendment right.

cooper wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:51 pm

highdesert wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 11:24 am People make comments about shootings all the time, McCabe is a talking head on CNN. McCabe became acting FBI director after Comey was fired and McCabe was fired by Trump, who then nominated Wray. McCabe was dragged through the mud by Trump's DOJ until 2020, he's not an objective source.

The reported Capitol Police lieutenant who shot Babbitt, was cleared by an internal investigation. It's clear from all the video that Babbitt was breaking into a secure area in the Capitol and was shot and it appears to have been a justified shooting. We all knew immediately after it happened that Babbitt would be portrayed as a martyr for the cause. Trump is entitled to criticize it, it's his 1st Amendment right.

Respectfully, I think you're minimizing Tr*mp's actions here. I've only had someone say, "I know who you are, and I know where you live" once in my life. I knew damn well what that meant. Only time in my life I really needed the police, and they failed.

Yes, it's probably defensible 1st Amendment speech, but he doesn't get a free pass. We have to call it what it is.

Wino wrote: Thu Aug 19, 2021 12:40 pm https://abc7chicago.com/capitol-bomb-th ... /10961684/

Developing story, but made me wonder if we aren't headed into an era in USA similar to the actions in No. Ireland and Britain - due to the right wing Trumpistas fighting/bombing for their Führer !! Zeus, how turd ef'd up this world. !!!! Regardless of how this incident turns out.

The US Capitol Police officer who shot and killed pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt on January 6 will not face any disciplinary action, the department said Monday.

"USCP's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) determined the officer's conduct was lawful and within Department policy, which says an officer may use deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer's own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury," the department said in a statement.

The officer will not be named, the department said, out of consideration for the officer's safety.

"This officer and the officer's family have been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats," the department sad.

The announcement comes roughly four months after the Department of Justice announced federal prosecutors would not seek charges against the officer for the killing.

Terry Roberts, a Maryland attorney retained by Babbitt's family, previously told CNN that he intends to file a civil rights lawsuit alleging that she was a victim of excessive force.

highdesert wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 3:35 pm

Terry Roberts, a Maryland attorney retained by Babbitt's family, previously told CNN that he intends to file a civil rights lawsuit alleging that she was a victim of excessive force.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics ... index.html