A member of the far-right Oath Keepers testified in her seditious conspiracy trial Wednesday that she joined the group following a “steady diet” of InfoWars conspiracy theories and stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 because she “just got swept up.”
Jessica Watkins, an Ohio military veteran on trial in Washington, D.C., with four other members of the anti-government group, presented herself to the jury as a gullible follower, uninvolved in plans to attack the Capitol.
“It was really stupid, I just got swept up there,” Watkins said, according to CNN.
Prosecutors said Watkins, leader of the Oath Keepers’ subgroup Ohio State Regular Militia, was involved in a military-like stack formation that stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Two of her fellow defendants, including Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, also have testified in their defense.
Watkins explained how she came to believe the 2020 election was stolen from a daily dose of InfoWars content from host Alex Jones. Jones, who promotes baseless lies to sell diet supplements and fake cures, has been ordered to pay over $1.4 billion to Sandy Hook families.
“That’s probably how I found the Oath Keepers in the first place. I watched it five, six hours a day,” said Watkins, who said she still questions the 2020 election.
She said she often wonders why she went into the building, saying she intended to provide security and medical care during planned protests, but became “another idiot” once she was inside the building and “lost all basic objectivity.”
Watkins also apologized for her treatment of police protecting the building, specifically Metropolitan Police Officer Christopher Owens, USA Today reported.
“He was on the other side of that line, protecting other officers from my dumbass, basically,” Watkins said.
The prosecution is expected to cross-examine Watkins on Thursday.