The bombshells keep getting worse for Michael Byrd, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion.
After Just the News reported that Byrd had a lengthy disciplinary sheet and numerous dings on his permanent record during his time with the Capitol Police in November, two separate sources reported in December that Byrd, among other things, was on a so-called “Brady list” or “Lewis list” of officers who could not or would not be called to testify by prosecutors because of their untrustworthiness.
The revelation was first reported by Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations on Dec. 6 in a post on X, in which he said Byrd “had so many misconduct infractions that he was placed on a secret blacklist known as ‘the Lewis list’ maintained by the US Attorney in D.C. Officers on the list cannot testify in trials.”
BREAKING: The US Capitol cop Byrd who fatally shot unarmed Trump demonstrator Ashli Babbitt had so many misconduct infractions that he was placed on a secret blacklist known as “the Lewis list” maintained by the US Attorney in D.C. Officers on the list cannot testify in trials.
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) December 6, 2024
Now, to be clear, the existence of the “Lewis list” is hardly a secret blacklist, although who is on it is secret. Vice magazine reported on it back in 2020 in the context of a group seeking information about who is on it via Freedom of Information Act requests.
The lists, more broadly, are called “Brady lists” across the country — in “honor,” I guess you could call it, of a 1963 Supreme Court decision, Brady v. Maryland. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled, the government must turn over all evidence that could be seen as exculpatory to defense attorneys.
Over time, prosecutors and police departments began to realize that if a police officer had a long record of problematic behavior and was still on the force, that record of problematic behavior would have to be turned over to the defense in cases where that officer might have to testify. Hence, “Brady lists” began to be developed within the prosecutorial side of the criminal justice system: lists of officers who were off-limits to testify in cases because of their record.
And, boy, did Byrd have a record, all right:
Should Michael Byrd be sentenced to life in prison for the killing of Ashli Babbitt?
“The issues in Captain Michael Byrd’s background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check for a weapon’s purchase, a 33-day suspension for a lost weapon and referral to Maryland state prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car fleeing his neighborhood, according to congressional and police documents obtained by Just the News,” the outlet reported in November.
“Byrd’s record was uncovered during a larger House Administration Oversight Subcommittee investigation into the Capitol Police disciplinary process and was chronicled in a letter Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the panel’s chairman, sent Wednesday to the department’s chief, Thomas Manger, in which the lawmaker expressed concerns about the officer’s promotion to captain.
“’This Subcommittee is dedicated to ensuring USCP has autonomy from political pressures, so it can make operational and personnel decisions,’ Loudermilk wrote. ‘However, based on the information obtained by the Subcommittee regarding USCP’s handling of Captain Byrd following January 6, 2021, and his significant disciplinary history, I have concerns about USCP’s decision to promote him to the rank of Captain.’”
The issues began in 2004 — when Byrd gave conflicting reports to police regarding shots he fired at a stolen car as it was being driven away from his neighborhood while he was off-duty — and continued until 2019, when “then-Lieutenant Byrd was referred to [the USCP Office of Professional Responsibility] for leaving his loaded service weapon in a bathroom in the Capitol Visitor’s Center.”
However, Sperry’s post didn’t come with a fuller story, and it’s worth noting the language: The “Lewis list” is defined, in one FOIA request, as “a database maintained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia that refers, among other things, to allegations of misconduct against D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers.” [Emphasis ours.]
The difference in verbiage comes from the 1979 case Lewis v. United States, which dealt specifically with Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department being subject to Brady disclosures — hence the fact that Washington’s list is called the “Lewis list” specifically while these lists, maintained across this fruited plain, are called “Brady lists” generally. Not only was there not a story to go with it, but Byrd wasn’t a member of the Metropolitan Police Department.
While there might be some cross-pollination of language between the MPD and USCP and the U.S. Attorney for D.C., which handles MPD cases, also gets involved in federal matters, it seemed somewhat unclear how reliable this information might be. However, this was followed several days later by a separate story from The Blaze titled “Exclusive: Officer who killed Ashli Babbitt abandoned US Capitol post for card game, lied to investigators about it, source says.”
That part’s also pretty bad, as are the rest of the revelations, but reported messages from Thomas A. “Tad” DiBiase — general counsel for the U.S. Capitol Police — confirm that, yes, Byrd was on a “Lewis list.”
The messages apparently came in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, killing of Babbitt, when “[r]ecords obtained by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight showed top House Democrats worked with DiBiase to find ways to help Byrd financially in the months after he shot and killed Babbitt at the Capitol.”
One of them was finding a way to house Byrd to keep him safe, ostensibly.
“DiBiase met with Jamie Fleet, staff director for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to discuss options to help Byrd, according to an email uncovered by congressional investigators. Pelosi had earlier said that she wanted Byrd ‘taken care of,’ said a Blaze News source who directly witnessed the statement during a meeting,” the outlet reported.
“DiBiase suggested that they could place Byrd at one of the department’s ‘continuity sites,’ but that would require a top-secret clearance. Continuity sites are maintained to ensure that Capitol Police could continue to operate and communicate in the event of a catastrophe in Washington, D.C.”
That would be a problem, he said in the email.
“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.
And there you have it: Call it a “Brady list,” call it a “Lewis list,” call it what you like — but Michael Byrd is on it for a series of infractions that date back 20 years at this point, yet he kept getting promoted and is still a hero to the left, while Babbitt is a raving lunatic who got what she had coming to her.
At this point — knowing what we know about Byrd, about the Capitol Police’s actions on Jan. 6, about how many “human intelligence sources” were in the Capitol incursion crowd — how can we take anything our government tells us about this seriously?
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