A member of the far-right Oath Keepers on Friday was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail for her position within the lethal 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by extremist supporters of Donald Trump who tried to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over the Republican.
Jessica Watkins was convicted in November by a federal jury in Washington of obstruction of an official continuing for her position within the storming of the Capitol, which noticed rioters battle police, smash home windows and ship lawmakers working for his or her lives.
Watkins was additionally convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of officers throughout the riots.
The US district decide Amit Mehta on Friday stated it was “notably arduous” to concern a sentence for Watkins after she testified throughout trial concerning the struggles she confronted along with her transgender id and her cooperation with regulation enforcement officers throughout their investigation of her conduct on January 6.
However he stated that “doesn’t wipe out” what she did throughout the assault. “Your position that day was extra aggressive, extra assaultive, extra purposeful than maybe others,” Mehta stated.
Kenneth Harrelson, one other Oath Keeper convicted of obstruction of an official continuing, was additionally discovered responsible of conspiring to forestall members of Congress from certifying Biden’s election win in addition to tampering with paperwork and proceedings. He can be sentenced in a while Friday.
Watkins and Harrelson had been acquitted of seditious conspiracy prices.
Watkins advised the decide: “My actions and my habits that fateful day had been flawed and, as I now perceive, prison,” she stated.
Friday’s court docket proceedings had been going down in the future after Mehta sentenced the Oath Keepers’ founder, Stewart Rhodes, to 18 years in jail for crimes together with seditious conspiracy, or utilizing power to attempt to overthrow the federal authorities. That’s the steepest penalty but in opposition to these charged within the January 6 violence.
Members of the Oath Keepers, based by Rhodes in 2009, embrace present and retired US army personnel, regulation enforcement officers and first responders.
