Oath Keepers leader waited for Trump to ‘activate’ them before Capitol attack

Jessica Watkins allegedly underwent 'war games' training to be 'field-ready' for inauguration

A leader of the Oath Keepers militia says she waited for Donald Trump to “activate” them before going to attack the Capitol last month.

Jessica Watkins was waiting for direction from the ex-president before traveling to Washington DC to try and violently overturn his election loss to Joe Biden, federal prosecutors say.

Watkins, 38, even took part in “two days of war games” to prepare and train for the 6 January attack on the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Mr Biden’s win.

Prosecutors say she stated the need to wait for instructions from Mr Trump before taking action, and had talked about being “field-ready before inauguration”.

“Her concern about taking action without his backing was evident in a November 9, 2020, text in which she stated, ‘I am concerned this is an elaborate trap. Unless the POTUS himself activates us, it’s not legit.The POTUS has the right to activate units too. If Trump asks me to come, I will. Otherwise, I can’t trust it,’” wrote prosecutors. 

“Watkins had perceived her desired signal by the end of December. In a text exchange with Co-defendant Donovan Crowl on December 29, 2020, she informed, “[w]e plan on going to DC on the 6th” because “Trump wants all able-bodied Patriots to come”, and how, “[i]f Trump activates the Insurrection Act, I’d hate to miss it”.

In their 21-page filing, prosecutors asked a judge to keep Watkins behind bars until her trial, saying that she had a “single-minded devotion to obstruct through violence an official proceeding that, on 6 January 6 was designed to confirm the next President of the United States”.

And they added: “Clad in camouflaged battle fatigues, a tactical vest emblazoned with an Oath Keepers patch, combat boots, military-grade helmet, and radio equipment, Watkins and her fellow Oath Keepers militia members were among those hundreds of insurgents who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

“But unlike the vast majority, Watkins had trained and plotted for a moment like this,” the government said.

Prosecutors say that Watkins told her co-conspirators that they were “sticking to the plan” when they breached the Capitol.

”Moments after the vice president of the United States, Senators, and staff were hurriedly evacuated in the midst of certifying the results of the 2020 Presidential election, that plan became chillingly clear when an unknown male instructed over the channel, ‘You are executing citizen’s arrest. Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud,’” they stated.

Watkins and Donovan Crowl, 50, both of Champaign County, Ohio, and Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, of Virginia, face charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property and unlawful entry on restricted building or grounds in United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The Oath Keepers are a loosely connected paramilitary group that believes “the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights”.