Jessica Watkins was arrested for her actions as an organizer and participant in the storming of the United States Capitol Building on January 6. As she faced U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta she said, "As soon as I'm out, whether acquittal or release, I'm canceling my Oath Keepers membership." The judge appreciated her effort to talk herself out of the slammer but ultimately decided nuh-uh.
via Yahoo:
"I've thought about this quite hard, Miss Watkins," the judge said. "And I think, at the end of the day, I just can't get there. I don't think putting you on home detention would ensure the safety of the community … You are an active participant, organizer, leader of others in engaging in this kind of conduct. The material found at your home certainly suggests further potential for organizing and further potential for violence."
She explained that all she wants to do is return to her town of Woodstock, Ohio near Columbus, that she's "…done with that lifestyle," and wants to focus on being a small business owner. Yeah. Right. That business happens to be a bar. Does anyone for a second believe that most of the patrons there, where she did her most active recruiting, and who are either still a part of Oath Keepers or harbor similar Trumpian, far right, anti-government beliefs, would be cool with that?
"Oh hi, Jessica, you're done with that group you recruited me into and you no longer follow all of our extremist beliefs anymore? Yeah. We all respect that here. How's the corned beef?" is what no one at the Jolly Roger Bar and Grill, that she owns, would likely say. I'm pretty sure they'd remind her that she swore some kind of an oath, which is IN the title of their group and pretty hard to forget. Maybe she'd respond with something like, "I just said all that horse shit so I could get back out and scheme up our next move."
Now, I am taking an excessive amount of liberties but it seems like Judge Mehta's deep contemplation of whether to release her or not may have followed similar lines.
"She was involved in active recruitment, planning and coordinating future violence against the government," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ahmed Baset. "There are no conditions or set of conditions that would preclude her from engaging in that type of activity moving forward. Even if she's placed under home confinement, even if she has an electronic monitoring system, it would not stop her."
