“A Tale of an American Political Prisoner”

Part 10.4: The Federal Courthouse; Washington, DC

–The “Oathkeeper 1” Trial: Government’s Case in Chief Part 1–

by: Jessica Watkins (X: @J6ssicaWatkins)

A True Story; 100% verifiable with Courtroom Transcripts, Evidentiary Exhibits, Court Documents and Testimony.

Trials have a regimented structure by nature. They go like this: Jury Selection, Opening Arguments, the Government’s (Prosecutor’s) Case in Chief, the Defense (our) Case in Chief, and then Closing Arguments. Once trial ends, the Jury Deliberates, and then the Jury Delivers a Verdict. Opening Arguments are just a “snapshot” of what the Jury can expect from the Government and Defense; a “cliff notes version” of what to expect during the course of the trial. The Case in Chief brings forward witnesses and uses those witnesses to present evidence. Closing arguments are a final reminder of what the Government/Defense wanted the Jury to remember before they Deliberate. When the Government is laying out their Case In Chief, they bring forward witnesses, then the Defense gets to “cross-examine” those witnesses, then the Government gets to “re-cross examine” those witnesses and ask more questions (to undermine what the Defense just did). When the Government is done with their Case In Chief, they will say “The Government Rests their case”. Then the Defense goes, and it’s the same structure. We bring forward our witnesses, the Government cross examines, and we get to re-cross. The biggest takeaway is this: the Government always goes first, and they always go last. Even during the Closing Arguments. They open the Closing Arguments, then the Defense goes, then the Government finishes the trial with their second rebuttal Closing Argument. Trial is a verbal battle; two “teams” trying to win over the minds of the Jury. And the Government ALWAYS has the advantage. Despite that advantage, they then cripple the Defense as much as possible to further widen that gap.

The Government wins 98.9% of all Trials because Trials are not fair. It’s not about guilt or innocence. It’s about “can I convince 12 people to believe that a deliberately vague statute was violated, by making the Defendant look/sound scary?” The Government will always have the upper hand. Always. Not just because they have an essentially unlimited budget. And I mean… they do. They’re the one with the money printer in the basement. They’re the US Government, and the Biden Regime probably spent tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars investigating just the OathKeeper J6 Case alone. But, us Defendants… we only had $70,000 Attorneys. The Government had a MOB of FBI Agents and Prosecutors. Probably hundreds that looked at evidence and conducted interviews. The Defense Team has 3 people (Attorney, Paralegal, Investigator) working on our case, per Defendant. Furthermore, the Government is the “lofty FBI and DoJ”, they’re the ones with the Badges and Guns. Uniforms = Authority. After all, the Government wouldn’t lie, would they? I mean, politicians never do, right? Meanwhile, the Defense are just the “lowly criminals”, the psychos they’re trying to put in prison; so they probably liars too, those bastards! Then, during the course of Trial, the Government gets the final say. They get the final word too. It’s not fair. It’s not right. But it IS the way of things. The Government’s Case in Chief would last more than a month. Closer to 2 months. What I say here will be disjointed and out of order. It’s the nature of trying to remember (and then convey) a vast quantity of information into a concise storyline. You would need to obtain the Courtroom transcripts to see how it all played out chronologically and sequentially. Sorry, my memory is good but it’s not photogenic.

The Government spent an inordinate amount of time trying to show that we were “violent right-wing extremists”. The Government relied heavily on their “expert witnesses”… the FBI Agents that investigated us. They put heavy emphasis on showing rhetoric concerning the legitimacy of the 2020 Election; namely, between Tom Caldwell and his friends (people we had never met or spoken to). The Government showed texts and Facebook messages between Tom and his friends. They also showed texts between Tom and the NC OathKeepers – who had split off from OathKeepers National and formed their own group. They had nothing to do with me or our group. But, the Government deliberately attempted to entwine the two into a unified group, despite an entire lack of communication between us. Essentially, it was all completely irrelevant. Tom didn’t tell us what the North Carolina guys were doing. The North Carolina guys didn’t tell us what THEY were doing. We didn’t tell Tom or the North Carolina guys what WE were doing. And the North Carolina guys didn’t DO anything, and weren’t even accused (and certainly not Indicted) of anything. We were in no way connected, and we hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in MONTHS, not since the Million MAGA March in November. So a LOT of what the Government brought forward was completely irrelevant. To me, it seemed desperate and pathetic; trying to make Tom look crazy, and then to make us look crazy by proxy. The problem was, NONE OF US had access to Tom’s Facebook or text messages between his friends. None of us had any way of knowing what Tom was saying to his friends and family! All Tom did, was to help me find a hotel and then later to find parking. That’s it! Tom didn’t belong on our Indictment at all, and CERTAINLY not in our Trial. But at the end of the day, the Government WANTED him. Desperately! He was the only one who was using a lot of crazy sounding rhetoric, and they wanted to use those texts (which we didn’t know existed) against ALL of us. It was a disingenuous ploy.

For days while they showed Tom’s messages, and my mantra would become “What does ANY of this have to do with us or January 6th?” The others in the Courtroom: Meggs and Harrelson, they didn’t even know who Tom was! They’d never heard of him; he was a complete stranger. As for Rhodes? Not only did Tom never communicate with Stewart, but it was clear that Tom disliked Stewart Rhodes A LOT; he kept calling him “Popeye” and “One Eyed Willy” and stuff. Tom used a lot of demeaning nicknames and angry talk about “Stewie and his d***beaters”. The Government used a bunch of texts between Tom and his tree-cutting guy (who was clearly a Trump supporter) about how the Election was stolen and stuff. It was all so random and unconnected to anything. To use fancy words, there was no “nexus” to connect Tom to anyone, other than through me. But, I almost never talked to Tom either. I never made any phone calls to him. One time I told him about my broken arm in a text. Another time, I wished him a Merry Christmas. He sent me a long rambling text that I never replied to, about the North Carolina guys thinking about “schlepping weps” on a bus (which isn’t illegal, btw). But, I never saw it or replied to it. It didn’t have any plan or scheme it had nothing to do with anything! Honestly, the message sounded like he was drunk. But, it “sounded scary” and ultimately that was the point. At the end of the day, Tom only helped me find a hotel and parking. That’s it. Other than that, nothing that Tom said had anything to do with anyone, other than him. It was as weak as it sounds, but the Government was trying to explode that out to some sort of massive over-arching plot. And the Government kept beating that dead horse, like… for a week straight. It was pathetic, and frankly I think the Jury started getting bored, like, “OK this Tom guy says some crazy or mean stuff. But what does any of this have to do with January 6th?”