How an Ohio bartender’s patriotism was warped by social media and a devotion to Trump,

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jessica Watkins and her band of militia members pinballed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, driven by what she described on social media as a patriotic response to a call from then-President Donald Trump.

But her sprint to the rotunda in military gear was hardly one of a longtime, hellbent extremist, those close to her say.

Watkins served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, worked as a firefighter and renovated a drab corner bar into a money-maker before the coronavirus pandemic struck. She even voted for Barack Obama.

Of the more than 300 people charged in the Capitol riots, Watkins’ case stands out – as much for the person as for the allegations.

Watkins, of Champaign County in western Ohio, is accused of some of the most severe allegations filed in the proceedings to date. Federal prosecutors say she trained and coordinated militia members for the event, leading them past officers into the Capitol as Congress was prepared to certify Joseph Biden as the winner of the presidential election. Authorities identified her as a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that believes elected leaders are taking away Americans’ rights.

“Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today,” Watkins wrote afterward on social media. “Teargassed, the whole 9. Pushed our way into the rotunda. Made it into the Senate even. The news is lying (even Fox) about the historic events we created today.”

Her case highlights how a mix of naivete, incendiary online political rhetoric and Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud could veer someone off course and into the path of the Justice Department, according to interviews, court records and Watkins’ online posts. Her issues have been complicated by the fact that she is a transgender woman struggling to adjust to being held in federal detention without bond.

“I believe that Jessica’s loyalty to her country and desire to serve may have allowed her to be taken advantage of by people with an agenda that Jess was, perhaps, not fully cognizant of,” one of her friends, Adita Lynne Harless, says in a letter to court officials about Watkins’ character.

Watkins, 38, is among scores of people who were drawn to Trump and his claims, many of which were peddled online, said Freddy Cruz, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“During the last few years, these small militias believed they were acting at the behest of Donald Trump,” Cruz said. “They really did.”

Watkins formed the Ohio State Regular Militia in recent years to help law enforcement and safety forces with security during state emergencies, such as the high winds that hammered through Southwest Ohio, according to interviews.

The militia’s focus shifted over the past year or so. On the day Biden was declared the president-elect, Watkins and a few of her militia members drove to the Ohio Statehouse for security, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.

Her attorney, Michelle Peterson, said in court filings that Watkins “believes in the sanctity of the government and the importance of law and order.” But as dissent began to spike in the online community of Trump supporters, militia members across the country believed they had a role in protecting people Jan. 6 in Washington. Trump’s words fueled that belief, Peterson wrote.

“Ms. Watkins was one of those people,” Peterson says in the filings. “In November, she believed that the president of the United States was calling upon her and her small militia group to support the president and the Constitution, and she was ready to serve her country in that manner.”

How did a person so intent on helping people and serving her country end up in a jail cell involving the insurrection at the Capitol? Many of those close to her point to her past, as well as the firestorm of right-wing media that appeared to captivate her.

A person on the move

Watkins grew up in Greater Columbus and joined the Army after high school. She served about four years, including some time in Afghanistan, and left the service in about 2004. Peterson said in documents that Watkins “was forced out of the military after her sexual orientation was discovered.”

For the next several years Watkins lived and worked mostly along the East Coast, including in Wilmington, Delaware, where she handled the computer network of a nonprofit clinic, according to interviews, published reports and court filings.

She left Delaware for North Carolina, where she studied to become a firefighter and an emergency medical technician, according to interviews and online records. She later served on the Stoney Point Fire Department, a small office in Fayetteville.

“I liked Jessica,” said a department secretary who declined to be identified. “She was a good person.”

Watkins left the area, returned to Ohio and began working at a retail store, records show. In about 2016, she met Montana Siniff, and the two began dating. Months later, they heard about a chance to open a bar in Woodstock, a Champaign County village located about 40 miles northwest of Columbus.

“We jumped at an opportunity to own and run a small-town bar with a stable customer base,” Siniff says in a letter to court officials.

In about late 2018, the couple opened the Jolly Roger, a pirate-themed bar just off Main Street, and lived in the apartment above it. The business was starting to take off when the coronavirus hit last year.

To slow the spread of the virus, Gov. Mike DeWine imposed a stay-at-home order and pushed a curfew for bars and restaurants. The Jolly Roger, like so many others, suffered, according to interviews and court documents. That’s when Watkins began spending more time on Parler, the social media app popular with Trump supporters, and other right-wing websites.

“While some of the rhetoric [Watkins] allegedly engaged in is troubling, she fell prey to the false and inflammatory claims of the former president, his supporters and the right-wing media,” Peterson says in documents. She declined to comment for this story.

‘Thanks for nothing DeWine’

Watkins posted a good deal of information on social media about her militia and her support of police officers. She also wrote of her disdain for DeWine.

“My small business is a bar. Empty on a Saturday. Thanks for nothing DeWine,” she wrote on Parler in early January. “Guess I am going to go pack for DC now. See you there.”

Long before she left for Washington, Watkins feared a Biden presidency and appeared to follow conspiracy theories spun on social media, federal prosecutors said in documents. That became clear on Nov. 17, when she sent a message to a person who was listed as a “recruit” in her phone contacts.

“[If] Biden get the steal, none of us have a chance in my mind.” prosecutors quoted Watkins’ note. “We already have our neck in the noose. They just haven’t kicked in the chair yet.”

Watkins, according to court filings, added: “I don’t underestimate the resolve of the Deep State. Biden may still be our president. If he is, our way of life as we know it is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights.”

In a message to a friend in December, Watkins made it further clear why she was intent on going to Washington: “Trump wants all able-bodied patriots to come,” court records show.

Watkins said on Parler that she and her militia members served as security for various people prior to the demonstration. They took pictures of themselves when they reached the Capitol.

But prosecutors said they did more than that. Watkins and her group prepared and planned for the event, they said.

At the Capitol, they met up with some members of the Oath Keepers from along the East Coast, and several of them entered the Capitol in a single-file formation, pushing past officers into the rotunda, according to court documents. While inside, Watkins and a member of her militia celebrated and captured the moment on video, the records show.

“In this backdrop, Watkins and her co-conspirators formed a subset of the most extreme insurgents that plotted [and] then tried to execute a sophisticated plan to forcibly stop the results of a presidential election from taking effect,” prosecutors wrote in the filings.

Five people were killed, including a Capitol police officer. Dozens of officers were assaulted.

In her online messages, Watkins denied wrongdoing.

“We never smashed anything, stole anything, burned anything, and, truthfully, we were very respectful with Capitol Hill PD until they attacked us,” she wrote on Parler later.

Parler was taken down in the weeks following the attack, but the Ohio Capital Journal found that post and others from Watkins’ account.

After the siege

Watkins did not appear concerned as the FBI and U.S. marshals began making arrests across the country.

“I wouldn’t worry about them coming after us,” she said in a message to a friend days later, according to federal documents.

Authorities arrested…