We now know what has long been an open secret, that it was Lt. Michael Byrd of the U.S. Capitol Police who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6. In his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Byrd was inconsistent in his grasp of the facts, self-contradictory, and ill-informed on the law governing police use of force. If this is how he performed under Holt’s gentle questioning, it’s easy to speculate on how he would hold up under cross-examination by a competent and even mildly aggressive attorney, and I am more confident than ever that the government will settle with Babbitt’s family rather than risk a trial featuring Byrd as the key witness.