WASHINGTON, DC - A stunning series of revelations about Captain Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed unarmed Ashli Babbitt on January 6, 2021, is bound to inflame further tensions about the “insurrection” that occurred on that date.
According to a report in Blaze Media, Byrd had been recommended for termination in 2001 for abandoning his post in the Speaker’s Office for a card game in a nearby cloakroom. When confronted with the allegation, he lied to Internal Affairs investigators.
The Blaze reported that the 2001 incident was the first known case against Byrd, who shot and killed Babbitt in the area of the Speaker’s Lobby even though she did not pose an immediate threat. According to The Blaze, the 2001 incident marks the fourth disciplinary case against Byrd disclosed since November 20.
Only one of the four incidents was uncovered by a House oversight committee, which requested them earlier this year, a source told The Blaze. Byrd was charged with abandoning his post, eating and drinking at his post, and lying to investigators, a terminable offense.
Byrd’s post was at the Speaker’s Office of Rep. Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) on the night in question. Byrd went to play cards in a cloakroom near the House Chamber during his break, according to a source, who was unnamed.
Byrd went to relieve the officer who had covered his post during his break but soon abandoned it and returned to playing cards.
“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 the U.S. Capitol Police administration. “This is a big issue.”
An internal investigation was opened as a result.
“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 there, and he was there playing cards.”
Byrd also violated US Capitol Police policy against eating and drinking at his post.
“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.”
When confronted by investigators with their findings, he denied them.
“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.”
Byrd was allowed to confess since investigators already had the necessary evidence, but he stuck to his story.
“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 terminating Byrd; however, the USCP administration did not follow their recommendation.
“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.”
The source said Byrd ended up “getting into some trouble,” but they didn’t terminate him.
“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 tried to find out how records of the 2001 case and two others went missing, as congressional investigators were told by the Capitol Police earlier this year. The source said that would be nearly impossible since there are so many emails and memos that exist outside Byrd’s internal affairs jacket to be wholly missing.
“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 that’s all these different records. If they just did a search on the emails, all this stuff, it would be in existence.”
DiBiase is general counsel for the Capitol Police.
The Blaze reached out to USCP and Byrd’s attorney for comment however did not receive a reply.
One person concerned about Byrd’s disciplinary history is U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who expressed reservations about Byrd’s 2023 promotion from lieutenant to captain.
In a November 20 letter to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, he wrote, “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.”
News of the 2021 disciplinary case comes as congressional investigators have revealed what Democrat lawmakers and the Capitol Police administration did to assist Byrd after January 6: They provided him with income, security upgrades at his Maryland home, and months of free lodging at a secure military hotel at Joint Base Andrews in the Washington, D.C. suburbs.
The lengths to which House Democrats went to assist Byrd were contained in records obtained by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on OVersight, first disclosed by journalist John Solomon and Just the News.
For example, in 2021, Byrd received $36,000 in unrestricted funds as a “retention bonus,” while other USCP officers received only $3,000 each. Moreover, he was reimbursed for over $21,000 in security upgrades for his personal Prince George’s County residence.
According to records obtained by Judicial Watch, housing Byrd at Joint Base Andrews from July 2021 until late January 2022 cost over $35,000. When leaving the base for any reason, Byrd was provided with a USCP dignitary protection detail, which a source told The Blaze could cost about $425 per hour.
An email uncovered by congressional investigators found that DiBiase met with Jamie Fleet, the staff director for then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to discuss how to help Byrd. According to a Blaze source who directly witnessed the statement during a meeting, Pelosi had earlier said she wanted Byrd “taken care of.”
One suggestion DiBiase made was to stage Byrd at one of the department’s “continuity sites,” but that would have required a top-secret clearance. Such sites are maintained to ensure the USCP can continue to operate and communicate in the event of a catastrophe in the nation’s capital.
“We believe it would be very difficult for him to obtain one, given 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 additional scrutiny if they were called as witnesses in criminal cases, The Blaze explained.
The department had also considered helping Byrd obtain mental health assistance “but not move forward on an 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.”
In his November 20 letter, Loudermilk wrote that the USCP planned to loan Byrd a shotgun. However, he failed the federal background check and did not qualify for shotgun training.
Byrd even tried to avail himself of funds from the Capitol Police Officers Memorial Fund, which is intended to honor fallen officers and to support their survivors. Byrd said he was frustrated that the fund was being opened to officers who were injured on January 6.
“What you proposed could take months,” Byrd wrote in an email to DiBiase on November 16, 2021. “Our expectation was that this would be done soon. Now you’re telling me we got to wait for the rest of the department to even file claims, get evaluated, and go through the process we have endured for months.
‘That is blatantly wrong to treat us like this,” Byrd wrote. “This was never proposed to us in this manner. Now, we’re being grouped in with everyone else. Wow! This is really bad for you all to do this when you know we’re expecting to have funds soon. So disappointing.”
DiBiase seemed surprised by Byrd's attitude in a reply to the email only a minute later.
“I’m sorry you are disappointed,” DiBiase wrote. “I find that surprising since we have already provided you $36,000 in unrestricted retention funds. You know what the rest of the department is receiving? $3,000 each. Yes, you are being lumped in with the other 91 officers who suffered injuries that day. The Memorial Fund is for the entire department, not one officer.”
Twenty minutes later, Byrd wrote: “We play the game as you request, and then once we’re in compliance you guys change the rules on us. If we were aware that our situation would be looped in with everyone on the department then we would have been better prepared.
“We were expecting this was for us, and everyone else has their own situation,” Byrd continued.
He added, “Just so you know, my wife is vividly upset and in tears because of this news. We have to wait additionally for the funds and can’t get approval to start the GoFundMe. Happy Holidays!”
According to Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the USCP Labor Committee, once word of the proposal to gift Byrd a potentially significant payment from the memorial fund spread department-wide, it didn’t sit well with the officers.
He spoke to acting Chief Yognanda Pittman and expressed his opposition to Byrd receiving the money. Rumors went department-wide that Pittman wanted to give Byrd $400,000 from the memorial fund.
“I brought it up in a formal meeting, and I had a couple of my board members with me,” Papathanasiou told The Blaze. “She looked at me like I had ten heads. She wouldn’t agree or deny it that it happened or it was going to happen.
“Once we got wind of it and brought it to their attention, all of a sudden, it kind of took them aback. They didn’t expect it,” Papathanasiou said.
The GoFundMe account Byrd mentioned raised $162,206 from 3,621 donors, including Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who donated $2,500, and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who was a member of the January 6 House Select Committee and donated $200. In making his donation, Kinzinger called it a “worthy cause.”
On July 15, 2022, Byrd was notified by DiBase that he was not getting paid from the Memorial Fund, to which Byrd replied in an email, “I will address on my own. USCP will not look good as a result.”
According to a July 2021 DiBiase email, the department considered using Memorial Fund money to pay Byrd and possibly funding the closing costs of a new home sale or purchase.
In November 2024, Loudermilk’s subcommittee revealed several other disturbing disciplinary cases brought against Byrd since 2004.
Those charges included firing his weapon at fleeing vehicles near his home and providing an “inaccurate” account to investigators at that time, saying the vehicles were driving toward him and trying to run him over.
USCP Internal Affairs determined BYrd violated use of force and use of weapons policies by shooting his service weapon in a “careless and imprudent manner.” Byrd appealed the finding to the Disciplinary Review Board, which overruled internal affairs.
In the January 6, 2021, shooting of Babbitt, many questions have been raised about Byrd’s actions aside from that deadly decision. For example, a news photo distributed by Getty Images shows plainclothes Capitol Police agents with their service weapons pointed at the main Hosue door after some Capitol intruders in the hallway outside broke through some of the frosted panes of glass on the door. The agents all had their fingers straight along the trigger guard of the weapons. All except Byrd.
Photos showed Byrd walking down a row of seats nearest the door with his finger on the trigger of his handgun. He carried the weapon in his right hand at hip level and had a package or object in his left. Carrying his firearm in such a manner goes against police training.
In the case of Byrd, his firearm was pointed directly at the back of Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), who was at the House entrance with a long wooden hand sanitizer stand. Four other plainclothes and uniformed officers were in his vicinity at the same time.
In 2015, Byrd was suspended for seven days after an incident at a high school football game, where he berated a Montgomery County Police officer working security at the game, calling him a “piece of shit” and a “racist asshole.”
In 2019, Byrd was suspended for 33 days without pay for leaving his loaded firearm in the bathroom at the Capitol Visitor Center. The gun was left unattended in the bathroom for nearly an hour before being discovered by another officer.
Maryland public records and federal court filings also show that Byrd has a long history of financial malfeasance.
The federal government won a $56,366 tax-lien judgment in Prince George’s Circuit Court in August 2019.
2009 Byrd filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and the case was turned into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July 2010. Creditors filed $1.27 million in claims against Byrd, which converted to a discharge of only $14,563.
Byrd filed for bankruptcy in April 1999, and the case was discharged three months later. The Blaze said archived U.S. Bankruptcy Court records don’t indicate the amount of debt discharged in the case.
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