A former Ohio bar owner who stormed the U.S. Capitol testified she was up by what she said seemed to be a “very American moment” on Jan. 6.
Watkins, an Army veteran , testified that she never intended to interfere with Congress' certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory and never heard any commands for her and other Oath Keepers to enter the building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Watkins took the stand in the seventh week of testimony in the case accusing Rhodes, Watkins and three others of a violent plot to stop the transfer of presidential power. Closing arguments could happen as early as this week. “We are in the mezzanine. We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. They are throwing grenades, they are fricking shooting people with paint balls. But we are in here," Watkins said in the recording.The defense has spent weeks hammering prosecutors’ lack of evidence of an explicit plan for the Oath Keepers to attack the Capitol before Jan. 6. that there was never a plan to attack the Capitol.
Watkins told jurors that she struggled with her gender identity since she was a young child but kept it from her parents for years given her strict Christian upbringing. She described being confronted after a deployment to Afghanistan by a fellow soldier who borrowed her laptop and saw evidence of her contact with a support group for transgender people.Watkins said she went AWOL for about two months, spending time in Alaska before receiving an “other than honorable” discharge.
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