“A Tale of an American Political Prisoner”
Part 11.6: The Federal Courthouse; Washington, DC
–The “OathKeeper 1” Trial: The Defense Case In Chief Part 6–
by: Jessica Watkins (X: @J6ssicaWatkins)
A True Story; 100% verifiable with Courtroom Transcripts, Evidentiary Exhibits, Court Documents and Testimony.
Once my testimony with Attorney Crisp had ended, I braced myself for the Government’s cross examination, which was conducted by Alexandria Hughes. I knew she was going to pull some shenanigans, and I wasn’t wrong. She started off easy, asking me a lot of “softball questions”, and I tried to answer as clearly and concisely as possible. I knew they would be scrutinizing my every word, seeking a way to dismantle my testimony. I wasn’t wrong. Much of what they focused upon initially was the Million MAGA March. During the Government’s Case In Chief, one of the FBI Agent witnesses was trying to peddle the lie that the Million MAGA March was a “test” for January 6th. This was simply untrue. In fact, it was SO untrue, that the FBI admitted as much during the Seditious Conspiracy GRAND JURY testimony. A Grand Juror asked the FBI witness (I believe Agent Palian) if the Million MAGA March was a “dry run”. The Agent stated emphatically, “No we have no evidence to support that”. Now, I remind you that the Seditious Conspiracy Grand Jury had NO NEW EVIDENCE since May 2021. They had learned EVERYTHING relevant 7 months prior. There were no witnesses, no new texts or anything. But by trial, the FBI decided to just “change their opinion” arbitrarily, in direct contradiction with their Grand Jury testimony. When this happened, a lightbulb went off in my head, and I scrambled to direct our attorney team to the relevant Grand Jury transcripts. Sure enough, I was right. They were lying under oath again, and we proved it. Despite this, Judge Mehta refused to allow the FBI testimony from the Grand Jury to be submitted to impeach their testimony. It was a revelation that was withheld from my Jury, and now they were trying to twist MY words during MY testimony to reinforce their bulls***. It all hinged on the QRF, the Quick Reaction Force.
The Government was trying to say that the QRF (which we always had, at every single event) was set up to “Use Force against the US Government”. The problem is, there was absolutely no evidence to support that. In fact, there was evidence to show that it was a benign function. I’ve discussed the purpose of the QRF ad nauseum thus far, so I won’t repeat myself. It was a joke, and it wasn’t funny. The Government (Ms. Hughes) grilled me, asking “Did you bring weapons to a hotel in Virginia?”… “No ma’am. I left my firearms locked up with the Crowl family in western Virginia” … “Did you ask about anyone about the potential of a QRF?” … “Yes” … “And did you ever communicate with anyone to store your firearms with the QRF?” … “No ma’am” She clicked on a document and submitted it into evidence ***DRAMATIC REVEAL*** It showed that Kelly Meggs sent a message that said “DM me”. (direct message). I got pissed OFF. This had been used against me during my FBI Debriefing, it was a lie they had told me then and it had confused me. I had no idea what they were talking about. So when I got access to my Discovery (evidence), turns out that Meggs said “DM me” the FOLLOWING DAY, and in direct response to a question asked by Kenny Harrelson, 60 seconds prior. There were over a dozen messages separating mine from his. It was CLEAR he wasn’t speaking to me. I looked at Ms. Hughes, i was pissed off and threw the evidence back in her face. “You people pulled this stunt on me when I talked to the FBI during my debriefing! Mr. Meggs wasn’t speaking to ME, he was talking to MR. HARRELSON, and you KNOW IT!” Using my finger on the touchscreen, I drew a circle around the date/timestamp at the top and showed “See this?! I sent MY message a DAY BEFORE! This had NOTHING TO DO WITH ME and you KNOW it!” She quickly took down the page. Her embarrassment was palpable. She moved on to January 6th as quickly as she could. Of course, they jumped straight to the Capitol door.
They wanted to attack the fact that I called it a “Black Friday moment”. She didn’t appreciate that line at all, it had REALLY gotten under her skin. So, she tried to make it look like I was involved in violence, but that too fell flat. I explained everything again. It was clear, there were no Police anywhere near me when I walked in. No vandalism. People, including me, just walked through an open door. Then they jumped to the Senate Hallway. She showed the footage from the Hallway over and over and over. I looked at her, I looked at my Jury, I was crying. I shook my finger at the screen and I told her, “Look at my face before I walked into that Hallway. I was laughing, smiling and having a good time. Then look at my face after I got crushed in the Hallway. I wasn’t laughing AT ALL! I had a broken arm and ribs, do you think that was FUN for me? I’ve already told you I am responsible for my actions here. I shouldn’t have blocked that hallway or Impeded those Officers! I told I am responsible! How many more times do I need to tell you that I’m responsible? … … I’m RESPONSIBLE!” I don’t really remember much about my testimony after that. It became a massive blur. But i do remember saying that “I shouldn’t have Impeded those Officers. I already told my Jury that I am guilty of that. If you had charged me with Trespassing, I would have told them that I was guilty of that too…” I think it was Jeffery Nestler that said “OBJECTION Your Honor!” Judge Mehta chuckled a little bit, and shrugged saying “Overruled. I’ll allow it”. I won’t lie, I got a little satisfaction from that. In previous Indictments, I had been charged with “Knowingly Entering and Remaining on Restricted Grounds”. But for whatever reason, when I was charged with Seditious Conspiracy, that charge was inexplicably dropped. Finally, when the Government was done grilling me on things we’d been over a million times, they asked me “During your testimony with the FBI, did you tell them that Mr. Meggs stated ‘We took the castle, we need to hold it’ when you were leaving the Capitol?” … “Yes ma’am. There was a curfew, and I told them we needed to go. Then he said ‘Well, OK. We can come back tomorrow and protest every day if we need to’ and then we left the area.” I could tell they were getting irritated, so they decided to try a different angle. To discredit me.
Their cross examination was entirely useless, so they decided to just impeach my testimony entirely. They knew I didn’t lie at any point, so instead they just tried to undermine my credibility. They ***dramatically*** revealed my tax records. Now let me tell you, I am a taxpaying citizen. I ALWAYS file my taxes, EVERY year since I became an adult (20 years worth of taxes). Period. Not just because I am a responsible taxpaying citizen, but also because I depend on my tax refund to augment my meager income. My peak income as an adult was a mere $32,000 per year, while I was a Firefighter. So I ALWAYS pay my taxes. But, during COVID was the one time I DIDN’T file my taxes. It was a very complicated year; I had made almost NO money. Like $500 per month. But I also was running a brand new business, which was struggling to survive under the COVID lockdowns. So I needed a tax person. But they were all closed because… yeah, COVID. I didn’t even HAVE TO file, according to tax code (we would prove this later) because I didn’t earn enough money. But that wouldn’t stop the Government from trying to make me seem like an unreliable witness. They showed my Tax Filings from the IRS between 2019-2022. Yeah. That’s right. They tried to make it seem like I was a UNTRUSTWORTHY WITNESS because I didn’t pay taxes WHILE I WAS IN JAIL! So I told them as much. I said, “Wait a minute! I couldn’t pay taxes during COVID, and I was in jail for the rest of the time! How would I pay taxes in jail?!?!?” Then Jeffery Nestler jumped up once more, “OBJECTION Your Honor!” but again Judge Mehta said “Overruled, I’ll allow it”. The Jury isn’t supposed to know I was a prisoner. But now they did. I wouldn’t have told them, if the Government didn’t try to impeach my testimony for not filing taxes while in jail. I wish I had thought of a snappy comeback. I had paid TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars, during my tenure as the owner of my business; property taxes, sales taxes, liquor taxes. Nevermind EPA fees, Liquor License Renewals, and a litany of government regulated fees. My income was practically entirely going to pay the Government, while I was living hand-to-mouth. That’s right. I was barely surviving, while the Government took practically every penny I made. This ended the Government’s cross-examination, and it’s every bit as bad as it sounds. But they would use my testimony against me anyway.
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