More than a month since the Jan. 6 uprising at the US Capitol, public information remains scant about the deaths of Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt and Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, the only two casualties that reportedly came as a direct result of violence in the conflict.
Rosanne Boyland of Georgia was reportedly trampled in the melee, and two others died as the result of medical conditions, leading mainstream media widely to cite five as the total death count.
While the losses—all Trump supporters, including Sicknick—are equally tragic, the dearth of details about his death, in particular, has led to growing concern that pro-Establishment deep-state officials may be using Sicknick as a tool to promote a false narrative and manipulate public sentiment against former president Donald Trump.
“The Left, as past and present show, will stop at nothing to destroy Donald Trump and vilify his supporters,” wrote American Greatness writer Julie Kelly on Tuesday.
“No one should discount the idea that Democrats and the news media would intentionally promote a totally fabricated story or use as a prop an untimely death to satisfy that mission,” she added.
Much of what has been reported is based upon a Jan. 8 New York Times piece that cited “two law enforcement officials” as its anonymous background sources to claim that Sicknick died from injuries sustained while fending off Capitol insurgents.
House impeachment managers have since used the uncorroborated claims in their memorandum outlining the supposed case against President Donald Trump for inciting violence.
“The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher,” they wrote.
But the lack of a medical report or charging documents offered reason to question the official narrative—particularly since Sicknick’s death serves as the only rallying point for the Establishment to counter Trump supporters’ David vs. Goliath tale of an oppressive government killing its own citizens.
Sicknick did not die on site, but hours later—conveniently after video emerged of Babbitt being shot to death by a yet-unknown police officer while attempting to enter the Speaker’s Lobby.
Even far-left CNN acknowledged the flimsy evidence supporting the Times‘s account of record in Sicknick’s death.
“Investigators are struggling to build a federal murder case regarding fallen U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, vexed by a lack of evidence that could prove someone caused his death,” CNN reported.
“Authorities have reviewed video and photographs that show Sicknick engaging with rioters amid the siege but have yet to identify a moment in which he suffered his fatal injuries,” it said.
But medical examiners have, apparently, been able to rule out blunt-force trauma as the cause, with CNN admitting that “early reports that he was fatally struck by a fire extinguisher are not true.”
Likewise, they reportedly ruled out pepper spray, according to Kelly, who reached out to the DC medical examiner as part of her own investigation.
They replied, via email, that they would “release the cause and manner of death when this information is available.”
She also noted that while the FBI and others have not rushed to publicly clarify the false reporting, they have, in their own statements, been far more prudent, saying that Sicknick “passed away” rather than being “murdered.”
And members of Sicknick’s own family have been less than forthcoming.
“Many details regarding Wednesday’s events and the direct causes of Brian’s injuries remain unknown, and our family asks the public and the press to respect our wishes in not making Brian’s passing a political issue,” Sicknick’s brother said in a Jan. 8 statement.
They were rewarded for their silence with the honor of seeing him lie in state at the Capitol and be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
With Trump’s impeachment do-over set to begin Tuesday, Kelly called on Trump’s legal defense to use the situation to shed more light on the suspicious circumstances.
“[S]ince Democrats included the ‘murder’ of Brian Sicknick in its bill of particulars against the president, the impeachment trial, ironically, offers the only opportunity for Trump and his defenders to clear the air on Sicknick’s death—it’s an opportunity they should not waste,” she wrote.
