Letters to the Editor: Trump administration’s Ashli Babbitt settlement is a ‘wasteful use of taxpayer dollars’

To the editor: Ashli Babbitt was part of a group of traitors whose attempt to overthrow a legitimately elected government is connected to the deaths of five federal law enforcement officers. Now the felon President Trump is agreeing to give Babbitt’s family $5 million (“Trump administration agrees to pay nearly $5 million to settle suit over Ashli Babbitt shooting in Capitol,” May 20). Really? Just curious, how much money is the administration planning on sending to the family of Thomas Matthew Crooks? After all, his assassination attempt resulted in the deaths of only two people.

I’m disgusted beyond words that my tax money is being used to reward the families of those who engaged in treason against the U.S.

Ronald O. Richards, Los Angeles

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To the editor: If President Trump believes an insurrectionist deserves compensation, he should personally write the check. Descendants of enslaved Africans have a more compelling argument for reparations than Jan. 6 rioters, and they are still waiting. This is a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars if the goal is government efficiency.

June Thompson, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The barrage against truth in our current bizarro world continues with the abysmal news of a pending settlement in the Babbitt matter. How to combat this? My method is to quietly state facts, indisputable, about what actually happened: On Jan. 6, a terrible, violent insurrection occurred, unsuccessfully attempting to steal my vote. Babbitt was an active participant. The officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia and by the Capitol Police.

Now, an opinion: Remember the tasteless old legal joke about the boy who killed his parents asking for mercy because he’s an orphan? I’m not laughing now. Babbitt’s family doesn’t deserve a cent.

Mark Diniakos, Thousand Oaks