One of the accused in a trial in which the founder and four members of the right-wing militia, Oath Keepers, are facing charges of seditious conspiracy has admitted the decision to storm the Capitol on January 6 was “really stupid.”
On Wednesday (November 16), Jessica Watkins, an Army veteran and former bar owner from Ohio, said her “steady diet” of conspiracy theories led her to become “just another idiot” in the mob that stormed the Capitol.
Watkins, who has been charged alongside the Oath Keeper’s founder and Stewart Rhodes, and three other members of the Oath Keepers, has spent nearly two years in prison after being arrested.
Watkins also revealed that on January 6, 2021, she wasn’t intending to stop President Joe Biden’s certification when she stormed the Capitol and hadn’t received any commands to storm the building from the Oath Keepers.
Instead, Watkins detailed that her “steady diet” of conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election from sources like Infowars host Alex Jones culminated in her actions on the day.
Rhodes reiterated much of Watkins’ sentiment, describing Oath Keepers’ storming the Capitol as “stupid” and noting that overturning the certification of the 2020 election was not on the agenda when he found himself part of the mob.
Instead, Rhodes claimed the group was waiting on orders from then-President Donald Trump as he expected Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, enabling Trump to call on the militia to stop the domestic disturbance.
But Watkins’ testimony on Wednesday contradicted Rhodes’s claims, saying there was never any plan to invoke the Insurrection Act.
Watkins revealed there was chatter about the Insurrection Act but explained no one took it “seriously” and described the likelihood as being “below the Chinese invading.”
Watkins, Rhodes, and the three other accused face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
