After President Trump pardoned 1,500 January 6 insurrectionists on his first day in office of his second term, one among those many was trans woman and far-right activist Jessica Watkins, who was sentenced to federal prison for felonies related to her role in the insurrection.
Watkins, a veteran, testified during her November 2022 trial that she lived as a man while in the Army, and after a fellow soldier discovered her secret, she went AWOL and fled to Alaska.
Watkins also told the jury that she grew up in a strict Christian household and after coming out to her parents as trans, was told to “never come home again.” Years later they reconciled and she returned to Ohio.
Back in Ohio, Watkins and her fiancé opened a pirate-themed bar called the Jolly Roger and testified that after listening to hours of Alex Jones broadcasts, she started her own militia in 2019.
She named the group the Ohio State Regular Militia and said it was formed to provide aid after several tornadoes struck Ohio, but eventually it became associated with the right-wing group The Oath Keepers. Then the group started making plans for Jan. 6.
Prosecutors claimed that on the day of the insurrection Watkins organized and directed Oath Keepers into the Capitol, while carrying tactical gear and coordinating by radio to obstruct Congress and overwhelm police. She was charged with six counts of conspiracy, obstruction and seditious conspiracy.
Watkins argued she had expressed remorse, and only went to the Capitol to provide security, wasn’t armed or violent and got caught up in the chaos.
The jury found Watkins guilty of conspiracy and obstruction charges but was acquitted of seditious conspiracy. In May 2023, she was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
In September 2023, The Advocate reported that “Watkins posted last month on X, that she was being held in a men’s jail and that the Federal Bureau of Prisons planned to send her to a men’s prison” and that she “had appealed to anti-LGBTQ+ U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan in hopes of being sent to a women’s prison.”
Watkins sent a follow-up post saying she was at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, which has sections for men and women, and thanked the Bureau of Prisons.
After her release in January, the Washington Post reported that “Watkins, who has been posting about restarting her life to her 26,000 followers since Trump’s clemency order freed her from an eight-year prison sentence, recently said she wanted to offer ‘exclusive content,’ such as a podcast, and polled her followers on what topics to discuss. She has also said she would auction off sketches for a fantasy book she wrote while she ‘was in the DC Gulag,’ a reference to the D.C. jail complex.”
On her X page, Watkins describes herself as a Buddhist and a former political prisoner and says she is writing a book about her life. After a long silence, she finally posted an update on her current life as of November 10.
“If you haven’t noticed, I left politics again. I’ll always talk about J6 stuff, but I am backing off on the rest. I’m going back to my normal, happy vibes. Nature, cat videos, fashion/beauty, nerd memes and artwork. The old selfie from time to time. I need joy, not toxicity.
She went on to share another revealing thought: “…I really don’t know where I fit into the broader political landscape. My puzzle piece doesn’t fit anywhere.”
Surprisingly, all but one of the responses to her post were supportive.