A military veteran who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 alongside the Oath Keepers militia was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, NBC News reported.
Jessica Watkins, who is trans, apologized for her actions and said her participation in the Capitol riot was “reprehensible.”
“My actions and my behaviors that fateful day were wrong, and as I now understand, criminal,” she said. “Violence is never the answer.”
Watkins said she was “just another idiot” rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and apologized to the police who were on the scene that day.
“I was just another idiot running around the Capitol,” she said. “But idiots are held responsible, and today you’re going to hold this idiot responsible.”
Watkins was sentenced the day after Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison and Florida Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs was sentenced to 12 years. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said that she wasn’t as much a threat as Rhodes and Meggs were, but she still was a serious participant who helped influence others.
She said she had a habit of “watching Infowars” and Alex Jones and was “hearing that Dominion servers were being invaded by the Chinese” before she went to the Capitol.
