CNN (“Trump criticism leads to rare criminal charges for Air Force officer who called for impeachment“):
A US airman who was arrested twice, once on the steps of the US Capitol while calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, was officially criminally charged Monday for his comments, according to a charging document his attorney shared with CNN.
Maj. Jason Watson faces the following charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the document: three violations of Article 88 for alleged “contemptuous” remarks about Trump, five violations of Article 92 for allegedly disobeying orders and two violations of Article 133 for alleged conduct unbecoming an officer.
The rare Article 88 charges are connected to the Air Force officer’s June interview with the Defenders of our Republic Substack newsletter, his July 1 protest in uniform at the US Capitol, and an August 17 CNN interview.
It can be considered a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to participate in uniform in any overtly partisan activity, such as a political protest, or to use “contemptuous words” against the president and other high-ranking civilian officials. Many low-level offenses of these rules are resolved informally, but Watson’s violations were unusually high-profile.
Watson was first arrested in July while protesting in uniform at the US Capitol, and he was then arrested again last week just days after criticizing Trump again during a CNN interview. One of his attorneys, Chris Mutimer, told CNN that his client was ordered to remain in “pre-trial confinement” — an action analogous to a denial of bond in civilian court — pending legal action against him.
“Not only is (Trump) a failure as president, he is flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaged in rampant corruption, and is killing Americans,” Watson told CNN’s Erin Burnett during the interview. “And that is unacceptable to me.”
[…]
The disobeying orders charges against Watson allege that he violated Defense Department regulations barring troops from speaking out in favor of partisan causes; “wrongfully” wore his uniform at a Capitol press conference; broke leave regulations by traveling to Washington, DC; and refused to wear his uniform to work the morning after his CNN interview.
Air Force prosecutors also alleged that Watson’s Capitol protest and CNN interview constituted “conduct unbecoming an officer.”
Mutimer, Watson’s attorney, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” that he spoke with his client Monday and “he is basically in solitary confinement for his safety.”
Officers have drilled into them, from the time they are cadets and midshipmen, the requirement to be nonpartisan and to avoid having the uniform associated with domestic politics. When Watson was arrested a second time, I was shocked that he was still in uniform after the first incident. Whatever one thinks of Trump or his policies, it is conduct unbecoming of an officer to protest in uniform.
My strong guess is that he did this precisely in order to be arrested and create a spectacle.
Mutimer said, “He truly believes in everything about our constitution and what it represents, and the oath that he swore, and he stands by the fact that he did this so others wouldn’t have to, and to share that to anyone who’s scared and feels alone.”
The founder of the organization that organized the protest in July, Jessica Denson of the Removal Coalition, told CNN at the time that Watson was aware of the risks of what he was doing and had reached out to them via email.
“We started having conversations and took this desire that he had to come out very seriously and thought about the best way to make his sacrifice worth it,” Denson said.
Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green accompanied him for the July protest. Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat, used her official page to praise Watson:
“It says a great deal about the conviction of Major Watson that he is willing to make this statement while in uniform,” she said.
“He is undoubtedly aware of the consequences of his actions and is willing to sacrifice likely his career and possibly his freedom for his beliefs about this now twice-impeached President.”
That’s a shameful politicization of the military by an elected official. Watson’s violation of his oath, and of federal law, will have zero impact on the election. But it further diminishes the standing of our armed forces with the public, which increasingly sees the uniformed military as partisan actors.
As to Watson, I can find very little about him. Several sources say he’s been in 17 years. Unless he’s prior enlisted, he should be a lieutenant colonel by now.
Regardless, he will almost certainly be stripped of his commission, his rank, and any veteran benefits he might otherwise have been entitled to. And rightly so.
Military courts-martial leading to “contempt of officials” charges are rare — a CNN review only identified two such convictions that have occurred since the modern Uniform Code of Military Justice was enacted in 1951.
In 1965, an Army lieutenant was convicted of the charge after he participated in an off-base protest against the Vietnam War in El Paso, Texas. Lt. Henry Howe was sentenced to a dismissal from the service — the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for an officer — and a year in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ultimately granted parole to Howe, ending his sentence early.
The most recent Article 88 conviction came in 2021, when former Marine Corps Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller pleaded guilty to contempt of officials and other charges linked to a series of social media videos he published criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Scheller, who was confined to the brig for a period of time before his trial, was sentenced to a $5,000 pay forfeiture and resigned from the Marine Corps sans-pension as part of a plea agreement.
Many others, though, have been forced to resign or punished under different articles. I have made frequent reference over the years to former LTC Terrence Lakin, a highly-decorated Army flight surgeon who threw his career away in 2010, refusing to deploy until he saw President Obama’s birth certificate. He was sentenced to six months in prison and discharged, forfeiting the pension he would have had coming upon retirement.
The court, rightly, would not allow him to present evidence that Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen. It turns out that military officers are not the ones to make that determination.
Alas, there’s a coda to the Scheller story:
The Trump administration has since appointed Scheller to serve as a senior adviser to the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness.
One doubts Watson will be appointed to a senior executive post in the next Democratic administration. But maybe there’s a spot for him on the speaking circuit.
