A source has informed TheBlaze that the U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant who is responsible for shooting and killing conservative activist Ashli Babbitt during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 was recommended to be booted from his job back in 2001 after he abandoned his post guarding the Speaker’s Office in order to participate in a card game happening secretly in a cloakroom and then lying to Internal Affairs Division investigators when confronted about it. In other words, he’s a corrupt dirtbag who should have never been allowed to continue sporting a badge and functioning as a law enforcement officer.
“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,” the report said. ” 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.”
Officer Byrd was assigned to keep an eye on Speaker’s Office of Rep. Denny Hastert, an Illinois Republican, during the evening when he abandoned his post. While taking his little break, he joined a card game being played in a cloak room that was located close to the House Chamber, according to the source.
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 soon opened to look into the matter.
“Of course, we have cameras everywhere and we track him walking off post, going back to the cloakroom,” the source went on to say. “And we talked to the other people in there and he was in there playing cards.”
Guess what else investigators found? Byrd had been eating and drinking at his post, which are activities forbidden by department policy. This guy doesn’t really seem to care about the rules and laws governing his very important security position.
“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 explained. “It’s the Speaker’s Office.”
And, true to the form of someone who doesn’t really care much for authority, when investigators asked him about his behavior he denied it.
“Mike denies that he was supposed to be assigned to the post,” the source said to TheBlaze News during their interview. “So therefore he couldn’t abandon the post. He denied eating and denied drinking on the post.”However, the source said that investigators had all the evidence they needed to nail Byrd for his rule breaking. They were simply giving him an opportunity to be a man of integrity and take responsibility for his actions.
“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 source added.
The USCP then recommended that the Capitol Police hand Byrd a pink slip. Obviously, they did not take them up on that advice. If they had, Ashli Babbitt would be alive and getting ready to celebrate Christmas with her family.
“So they charge him with eating, drinking on post, abandoning post,” the source further elaborated. “They charge him with untruthful statements with the recommendation to terminate.”
“He ends up getting into some trouble, but they won’t terminate him,” the source remarked. “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. “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.”
DiBiase is a general counsel for the Capitol Police.
The news concerning this disciplinary issue against Byrd comes to light as congressional investigators have revealed the insane lengths that Democratic Party lawmakers and the folks at the Capitol Police went to in order to provide him with income, security upgrades for his home, and months of free lodging at a secure military hotel following the events of Jan. 6.