Member of Oath Keepers conspiracy was ‘awaiting direction’ from Trump before Capitol attack, prosecutors say
Hours before day three of former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was set to begin on Thursday, federal prosecutors offered new evidence that a member of the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy charged with planning an assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was “awaiting direction” from Trump.
Jessica Watkins, an Army veteran and, according to court papers, a member of the Oath Keepers militia group, is accused of participating in a conspiracy to assault the Capitol in “an organized and practiced fashion” to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election. Watkins has been behind bars since her arrest on Jan. 17, and prosecutors filed papers on Thursday asking a judge to keep her in jail while her case moves forward.
“Watkins exhibited a single-minded devotion to obstruct through violence an official proceeding that, on January 6, was designed to confirm the next President of the United States,” prosecutors wrote. “Crimes of this magnitude, committed with such zeal, belie any conditions of release that would reasonably assure the safety of the community or by which Watkins could be trusted to abide.”
Trump has denied that he incited the riot, but Thursday’s filing marked the latest instance of court papers highlighting how people charged with violently descending on the Capitol last month believed they had Trump’s approval and were taking direction from him. Some defendants charged with participating in the insurrection have begun to craft defense strategies around the argument that they understood the president and commander in chief to be instructing them to go to the Capitol.
Prosecutors had previously released excerpts of messages that Watkins allegedly sent in the weeks before Jan. 6 as evidence of her role in organizing a violent assault on the Capitol, but Thursday’s memo included new details. According to the government, on Nov. 9, less than a week after Election Day, Watkins sent a text message to an unidentified person that showed she was concerned about taking action without explicit approval from Trump — “Watkins indicated that she was awaiting direction from President Trump,” prosecutors wrote. [Continue reading…]