Air Force Detains Officer Who Called for Trump’s Impeachment at Capitol
"Maj. Jason Watson, who was in uniform, was arrested during a protest that followed a news conference on Wednesday.
An active-duty officer was placed into Air Force custody after he was arrested in uniform on Wednesday after an event in which he called for the impeachment, conviction and removal of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The U.S. Capitol Police arrested the officer, Maj. Jason Watson, who identified himself as an active-duty service member, on the Capitol steps.
He was attending a news conference organized by the Removal Coalition, a grass-roots activist group. Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, who has filed articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump at least six times, also attended the event.
During his speech, Major Watson, who said he was not a member of the Democratic Party, accused the president and vice president of violating both the Constitution and their oaths of office.
“Congress remains unconvinced of the urgency and necessity for them to honor their oath,” he said, “so we must persuade them, with our unrelenting, uncompromising civil resistance.”
Major Watson ended his speech, in which he criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies as well as its actions in Venezuela and Iran, by calling on Americans “to peacefully exercise your First Amendment rights.”
After the news conference, he stood on the Capitol steps holding a sign with the words “Impeach,” “Convict” and “Remove” stacked one atop the other. Shortly afterward, he was arrested on suspicion of “crowding, obstructing and incommoding,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Friday.
“It is generally against the law for the public to demonstrate on the House steps unless they are with a member of Congress,” the police said. The statement noted that Major Watson had been “escorted to the House steps by a member of Congress” and that after the member left, “our officers gave the man lawful orders to stop the illegal demonstration.”
Jessica Denson, the founder of the Removal Coalition, said in an interview on Friday that the D.C. attorney general’s office elected not to prosecute Major Watson for his protest, but that he was “taken directly into custody by the Air Force yesterday.”
“He is being detained in an Air Force base as we speak and is currently under a military gag order,” she said.
Christopher J. Mutimer, a lawyer for Major Watson, said it was a “beautiful irony” that an active-duty Air Force major in full uniform had been arrested on the steps of the Capitol just before the July 4 holiday.
“Major Watson took a courageous, nonviolent stand to defend the Constitution against an unlawful war in Iran only to be detained at the foot of our nation’s capitol,” Mr. Mutimer said in a phone interview.
Mr. Mutimer said his client has not been criminally charged but was under investigation for several violations of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. Major Watson is currently at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington and is not allowed to leave the base, his lawyer said.
The Defense Department directed questions about the arrest to the Air Force, which did not respond to email or telephone inquiries.
Troy E. Meink, the Air Force secretary, said in a statement on social media on Thursday that he was “aware of recent reports involving an Air Force officer protesting at the United States Capitol.”
“I expect every Airman and Guardian to comply with all laws and policies governing personal conduct, political participation, and the wear of the uniform,” he said.
Service members are prohibited from using “contemptuous words” against the president, vice president, Congress and other top officials under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which states that “any commissioned officer” who does so “shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
Military members are also banned from wearing their uniforms while participating in political activities, like rallies, according to the Department of Defense Standards of Conduct Office.
Ms. Denson said Major Watson reached out to her in February with the intention of making a statement that would “not fall flat and that had a major impact and did not make his sacrifice in vain to convey an explicit message of impeachment, conviction and removal from an active duty member.”
Working with Major Watson over several months, Ms. Denson said, she brought Mr. Green, a representative of Texas who recently lost a primary election, to sponsor the event because a sitting member of Congress must host a news conference that is held at the Capitol and that her group purposely hid the major’s involvement until Wednesday.
“We wanted to protect him and make sure that he was able to make that message and clearly get it out to the masses before he could be stopped,” she said.
In a video statement posted after Major Watson’s arrest, Mr. Green said he was at the Capitol “to witness a major in the United States military bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.”
Mark Walker contributed reporting and Georgia Gee contributed research.
Aimee Ortiz covers breaking news and other topics for The Times."
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