WASHINGTON — Police arrested the mother of Ashli Babbitt on Tuesday evening a day after an altercation during a Memorial Day march held by supporters of jailed Jan. 6 defendants.
Michelle “Micki” Witthoeft, 58, was arrested on preliminary charges of simple assault and destruction of property, both misdemeanors, for an incident that occurred Monday evening shortly before 8 p.m. in the 1900 block of East Street SE. According to a DC Police incident report, another woman reported Witthoeft had assaulted her by shoving her with an open hand and then damaged a blowhorn she was carrying.
Video of the incident posted on social media appears to show a counter-protestor making a crude gesture as she walks away from Witthoeft, at which point Witthoeft follows her and shoves her several times before grabbing a blowhorn the woman was carrying and throwing it on the ground. Another participant of the vigil, who has identified himself on a right-wing crowdfunding site as having been at the Capitol on Jan. 6, then stepped between the women.
The incident occurred near the D.C. Jail, where for more than a year Witthoeft and others have held a nightly vigil in support of defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Witthoeft’s daughter, Babbitt, was among the crowd that entered the building and was shot and killed while attempting to climb through the window of a barricaded door into the Speaker’s Lobby. Investigations by both the U.S. Capitol Police Department and Department of Justice found no wrongdoing on the part of the USCP lieutenant who shot Babbitt.
Witthoeft, a California resident, has been a regular presence over the past two years at court hearings for Jan. 6 defendants and on Capitol Hill, where she has met with Congressional Republicans – including Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. WItthoeft was arrested earlier this year on the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack for failing to obey police orders and blocking and obstructing roadways on Independence Avenue near the Capitol. Those charges were later dropped.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a D.C. Superior Court records search showed no entries for Witthoeft.