Fact-Checkers Should Investigate the Murder of Ashli Babbitt

Cliff Kincaid

by Cliff Kincaid: On top of liberal media bias that has become outright dishonest journalism and propaganda, so-called “fact checkers” on the right have emerged, attacking other conservatives. A so-called fact checker with The Dispatch is Alec Dent, a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill who is apparently pictured above his name on the site in front of what appear to be bottles of hard liquor.

He claims there were no credible accounts of left-wing Antifa agitators having infiltrated the pro-Trump rally on January 6 in Washington, D.C. One story alleging that facial recognition software identified Antifa members among rioters who stormed the Capitol was retracted. But there are other credible accounts.

I sent these “fact checkers” my own video interview of a person who was at the rally and saw Antifa-like people with skeleton masks and smelled the dope they were smoking. Antonio Chaves told me what he saw and encountered at the rally. These people didn’t seem to be Trump supporters. He saw a member of Antifa trying to break a window and Trump supporters trying to stop him.

He believes some Antifa people were trying to pass themselves off as Trump supporters.

Were a few Trump supporters in the group that went into the Capitol, some with a police escort? Yes – no question about it. One of them, Ashli Babbitt, a military veteran, was murdered by the Capitol police. That’s a fact.

Although technically closed because of Covid-19, the Capitol is usually not a closed building. The Senate and House galleries are specifically designed for the public to enter the Capitol at will to watch their Senators and Congressmen at work.

The Capitol Police claimed, “As protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place, a sworn USCP [US Capitol Police] employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female. Medical assistance was rendered immediately, and the female was transported to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries. She has been identified as Ashli Babbitt.”

Jonathon Moseley, an attorney, concludes that the shooting of Ashli Babbitt inside the Capitol qualifies as murder, or more precisely an unjustified killing.

Moseley notes that the reports are clear that the massive, bank-vault-strong doors into the Capitol were open and pro-Trump protesters (and others) were able to just walk in. He notes some reports indicate that police gestured Trump supporters inside the building through the open doors. Trump had called on anybody marching to the Capitol to be peaceful. (See the president's Jan. 6 rally speech at 18:22.)

Reports are not completely clear. But he notes that it may be the case that Ashli Babbitt climbed up on top of the window opening in the interior wall where someone had broken out the window and was therefore likely committing the crime of trespass. But he notes that under D.C. law trespass alone would not justify the use of deadly force. It would justify an arrest by other means, such as a taser.

Did the Capitol Police shooter reasonably believe he was in danger? Not likely. The presence of police officers near where Babbitt was shot must also be examined. Did they think her being there was a threat? Why didn’t they restrain or arrest her?

The Capitol Police say she was given medical assistance “immediately.” So she must have been very close to the officers or other Capitol Hill employees (a fact verified by video).

Ignoring all of this, choosing not to fact-check the Capitol Police, Alec Dent of The Dispatch wants instead to discredit reports of Antifa being part of the mob.

The Dispatch claims, “We are a digital media company providing engaged citizens with fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture—informed by conservative principles.”

Conservative principles like the Mitt Romney variety? Biden says Romney has integrity. Romney turned on Trump after Trump turned Romney down for the Secretary of State job.

I previously tried to correct Jonah Goldberg of The Dispatch about his sweeping claims about Joe McCarthy failing to uncover real communists. You can read my findings in my column "A Battle Against Lies." Here’s what I wrote to him:Mr. Goldberg:

You claim [in your New York Post column] that Sen. Joseph McCarthy liked to insist he had evidence of Communists in the government, but he couldn’t show you the names right now. The number of Communist infiltrators on his secret list changed from speech to speech.

In fact, McCarthy had actually cited 59 suspected communists in the State Department, and he produced that list, plus 22 others. McCarthy helped uncover a communist spy ring involving foreign service officer John Stewart Service and Phil Jaffe, the editor of a pro-communist magazine. He targeted Owen Lattimore, a key State Department adviser and communist. McCarthy’s charge against Mary Jane Keeney, a State Department and UN employee and Soviet agent, was proven correct. McCarthy was right about Annie Lee Moss, an Army code clerk who was a member of the Communist Party.

The John Stewart Service spy ring also involved Laughlin Currie, an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, and they succeeded in manipulating U.S. foreign policy to enable the communists to seize China. Other top communists in government included Harry Dexter White at the Department of the Treasury and, of course, Alger Hiss of the State Department, a founder of the UN.

The JC Hawkins book on McCarthy and others, Betrayal at Bethesda, includes an Appendix B and 224 Communists identified by McCarthy and other investigations.

Please correct the record.I never heard back.

Goldberg achieved prominence because of his mother’s role in the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal. His mother was Lucianne Goldberg, whose notoriety got him a job at Fox News.

Author J.C. Hawkins discussed Goldberg’s strange views during a recent episode of America’s Survival TV.

Returning to Dent’s big fact-checking “story,” another “journalist” at The Dispatch, former conservative Stephen Hayes, says, “It's scary how deeply the Antifa-did-it conspiracy has penetrated the right, aided by desperate Republican politicians and irresponsible media-entertainment provocateurs.”

Promoting his own story, Dent claimed, “I've done a comprehensive fact-check on claims that the attack on Congress was an Antifa false flag. Rioters IDed as Anfita [sic] weren't Antifa, Trump supporters IDed themselves at the riot, and the attack had been planned on pro-Trump discussion boards.”

Comprehensive? So what if some of the demonstrators were in fact Trump supporters? The issue is that eyewitnesses also saw Antifa agitators and detected the smell of marijuana from several participants. That’s not the usual mark of a MAGA rally.

The New York Post ran a video of pot smokers inside the Capitol on January 6.

In his must-read American Thinker article about the rally that got my attention, Chaves reports:

• "My group boarded a D.C. Metro train at 10:30 am. Upon arrival to the next station, I saw three young white men board the train with dark clothes and skeleton face masks."
• "The main difference that struck me as unusual during this rally (apart from the three young men who boarded the train) was the frequent smell of marijuana…."
• "Suddenly the three young men I saw earlier on the train with scary masks in front (but pro-America symbols on their backs) made sense to me, as did widespread smell of marijuana."
• "Based on what I saw and read, I have no doubt that dozens and possibly even hundreds of Antifa and/or other provocateurs had infiltrated the rally in order to carry out violent acts and suck impressionable Trump supporters into their antics."

Alec Dent also claims to have fact-checked the report that one John Roberts vacationed on Jeffrey Epstein’s Island. The name of John Roberts was on a list of passengers.

We don’t know which John Roberts this is. Somebody claimed it was Chief Justice Roberts and ran a picture of someone with black hair in the water near Epstein’s island and supposedly on a trip that included Bill Clinton. This picture has now been labeled "false information" and taken down from Instagram.

Dent disputes this was THE John Roberts by reporting, “The individual identified as Roberts was not identified in reporting on Clinton’s vacation, but photos of Roberts at Trump’s inauguration, which also occurred in January 2017, show that his head of hair, with all respect to the chief justice, is grayer and not quite as full.”

So this is how the initial report is disputed? By photos showing a different head of hair?

Why not get a hold of Roberts and get a statement on the record? Dent fact-checks articles without getting facts.

If someone claimed Bill Gates appeared with Jeffrey Epstein, we know that’s true, since the New York Times published a photo of them together. Check out the article “Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past.” Read it and weep, Mr. Dent.

The fact is that many prominent people did associate with Epstein. It would be nice to know who they were.

By the way, on his LinkedIn page, Dent is identified as having been an intern in the Office of Jonah Goldberg at the American Enterprise Institute and an intern at the Washington Free Beacon.

The AEI and Washington Free Beacon are supposed to be “conservative” organizations.
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Cliff Kincaid is a veteran journalist, media critic, director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism, and writes for RenewAmerica.

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