Maj. Jason P. Watson stood on the Capitol steps on July 1 in his Air Force uniform and held up a sign reading IMPEACH. CONVICT. REMOVE. Rep. Al Green escorted him there. On Monday Green filed those articles — H.Res. 1486 — and went back to work. This week the Air Force charged Watson with ten specifications under three articles of military law. He is in a Maryland county jail.
Green walks. Watson sits in what his lawyer calls effective solitary confinement, held "for his safety."
The charges are the Air Force's alone, brought under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: three specifications of contempt toward officials under Article 88, five of failing to obey an order or regulation under Article 92, two of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman under Article 133. His lawyer, Christopher J. Mutimer of Monument Legal, released the count. The Justice Department has no part in it.
The three Article 88 specifications match three times Watson opened his mouth: a June interview with the Defenders of Our Republic Substack, the July 1 protest, and an Aug. 17 appearance on CNN's OutFront. He has been under a gag order since July 1. He told Erin Burnett that Trump had failed as president and that he "is flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaged in rampant corruption, and is killing Americans. And that is unacceptable to me."
The day after that aired, they arrested him at work.
Capitol Police had already arrested Watson on July 1, under the District code covering crowding and obstructing. The D.C. attorney general's office declined to prosecute and dropped it. Civilian prosecutors looked at the same afternoon and walked away. It took the military to find a crime in it.
