Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke January 23, 2025

No, Joe Biden didn’t pardon the Capitol police officer who fatally shot Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt

If Your Time is short

  • Former President Joe Biden pardoned multiple people involved with the House select committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021, but Capt. Michael Byrd, a Capitol police officer, was not among them.

Former President Joe Biden announced multiple preemptive pardons before leaving office Jan. 20. Among them: members of the House select committee that investigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the staff of the select committee, and the police officers who testified before the select committee. 

But that didn’t include Capt. Michael Byrd, who, as a U.S. Capitol lieutenant that day, fatally shot rioter Ashli Babbitt as she tried to breach the Speaker’s Lobby.

Some social media posts claimed otherwise. 

"BreakingNews," a Jan. 20 post said. "Biden has pardoned Michael Byrd, Byrd shot & KILLED Ashli Babbitt… the pardon applies to every police officer interviewed by the J6 committee for ALL crimes committed before, on, or after J6." 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Sign up for PolitiFact texts

Here’s what Biden’s "executive grant of clemency" said. 

Biden granted a "full and unconditional pardon" Jan. 19 for "the members of Congress who served on the select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol (‘select committee’); the staff of the select committee, as provided by House resolution 503 (117th Congress); and the police officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department or the U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the select committee."

The pardon is "for any offense against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in arising from or in any manner related to the activities or subject matter of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol."

As The New York Times reported, the pardons were part of "an extraordinary effort by an outgoing president to derail political prosecutions by an incoming president."

Biden said in a Jan. 20 statement that "those who perpetrated the January 6th attack have taken every opportunity to undermine and intimidate those who participated in the select committee … including by threatening criminal prosecutions" and that he could not, "in good conscious do nothing" to protect them from "baseless and political motivated investigations." 

But the pardon didn’t include Byrd, who didn’t testify before the select committee. The U.S. Justice Department and the Capitol Police cleared Byrd of wrongdoing, and he wasn’t charged in Babbitt’s death. He was promoted to captain in 2023.

"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," federal prosecutors said in a statement announcing their decision not to charge him. 

The four other officers who testified before the select committee are: Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, and Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell of the Capitol police. 

We rate claims Biden pardoned Byrd False.

 

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke

No, Joe Biden didn’t pardon the Capitol police officer who fatally shot Jan. 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt

Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up