Army veteran and Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison on Friday for participating in the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
At her sentencing in a Washington, D.C., court Friday, Watkins brandished herself as an “idiot” for her involvement in the violent effort to stop the certification of the 2020 election results and keep Donald Trump in office.
“I was just another idiot running around the Capitol. But idiots are held responsible, and today you’re going to hold this idiot responsible,” she said, NBC News reported.
During her trial, prosecutors brought evidence of Watkins assembling a small militia in Ohio and bringing them to D.C. for the riot in coordination with the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group tagged by the Justice Department as a “paramilitary organization.” Once there on Jan. 6, a tactical gear-clad Watkins was among those encouraging rioters to push past police and onto the Senate floor, evidence showed.
“Your role that day was more aggressive, more assaultive, more purposeful than perhaps others’. And you led others to fulfill your purposes,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said at Watkins’ sentencing, according to CNN.