Capitol Rioter Jessica Watkins Waited On Trump's Signal: Court

WASHINGTON, DC — New court documents filed on Thursday reveal an Ohio woman who’s a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, was "awaiting direction from President Trump" prior to last month’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors accuse Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old U.S. Army veteran, of being the leader of a group of Oath Keepers who were waiting on a signal from Trump to spring into action after Joe Biden won the presidency last fall.

The revelations offer a new link between Trump and rioters as House Democrats wrapped up their arguments to convict the former commander in chief for directly inciting the attack. Trump, the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, has denied any wrongdoing and said the remarks he made in a rally held prior to the riot where he encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol were "totally appropriate."

Watkins had a hand in training militia members in “urban warfare, riot control and rescue operations” in the belief that Trump will call on them to fight against what they considered an illegitimate election, prosecutors said, arguing for her continued detainment in the memorandum filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

“If Trump asks me to come, I will,” Watkins wrote in a November text message obtained by investigators.

Prosecutors accuse Watkins of organizing other Oath Keepers members, citing letters in which she wrote they were prepared to fight hand to hand in the Capitol while people with weapons outside the city “await orders to enter D.C. under permission from Trump, not a minute sooner.”

Prosecutors said that in a December text exchange with another member of the militia group, Watkins said she planned to in Washington, D.C. during the certification of Joe Biden’s win of the Electoral College because “Trump wants all able bodied Patriots to come” to try to stop the process.

During the attack, Watkins was among a group of Oath Keepers members dressed in military-style combat gear who were videotaped "moving in an organized and practiced fashion and forcing their way" into the Capitol, Video from the attack showed a woman appearing to be Watkins boasting about taking over the building, shouting "we took the Capitol, we overran the Capitol."

"For Watkins," prosecutors wrote, "this was a moment to relish in the swirling violence in the air."

Watkins even confirmed in an interview with the Ohio Capital Journal that she took part in the attack but denied any wrongdoing. She was eventually arrested on Jan. 17 and has remained in custody since.

Authorities said they consider Watkins a “key figure who put into motion the violence that overwhelmed the Capitol” who has shown no remorse for her actions and, if released, would be a danger to the community and a flight risk.

“Watkins exhibited a single-minded devotion to obstruct through violence an official proceeding that, on Jan. 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.”