An army veteran who stormed the Capitol military-style with fellow members of the Oath Keepers was sentenced to more than eight years in prison on Friday, a day after the founder of the far-right extremist group was killed in the January 6, 2021 attack.

Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio, was acquitted of the seditious conspiracy charge found guilty in November by Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, but jurors convicted her of obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct congressional certification of president

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Biden’s victory.

She is the third member of the anti-government group to receive her sentence this week in one of the most serious cases to riot the Justice Department. Rhodes’s 18-year term is the longest sentence to date in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers sentenced to 18 years for January 6 attack

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said that while Watkins was not a top leader like Rhodes, she was more than just a foot soldier, noting that at least three others charged in the riot would not have been there had she not recruited them to participate. He sentenced her to 8 years behind bars.

Your role that day was more aggressive, more attacking, more purposeful than maybe others,” he told her.

Watkins tearfully apologized for her actions before the judge delivered her verdict. She condemned the violence of rioters attacking police, but said she knows her presence at the Capitol probably inspired those people to some degree.

And today you are going to hold this idiot responsible, she told the judge.

For his part, the judge said her personal story of years of struggling to come to terms with her identity as a transgender woman made it particularly difficult for him to understand why she showed a lack of empathy for those who suffered on Jan. 6. Watkins tested during the trial about hiding her identity from her parents during a strict Christian upbringing and AWOL in the military after a fellow soldier found evidence of her contact with a transgender support group.

Incendiary conspiracy case against Oath Keepers members details plan to attack Capitol

During the nearly two-month trial in Washington federal court, attorneys for Watkins and the other Oath Keepers argued that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. On the witness stand, Watkins jurors, she never intended to interfere with the certification and was never told that her and other Oath Keepers had to enter the building.

Evidence shown to jurors showed Watkins posts after the 2020 election with people expressing interest in joining her Ohio militia group on military-style basic training. She told a recruit: you have to be fit for the inauguration, which was January 20, 2021.

On January 6, Watkins and other Oath Keepers wearing helmets and other paramilitary gear were seen fighting their way through the crowd and up the steps of the Capitol in military-style stacking formation. She communicated with others during the riot through a channel called Stop the Steal J6″ on the Zello walkie-talkie app, stating that we are now in the main dome.

Another Oath Keeper and fellow Army veteran Kenneth Harrelson will be sentenced later on Friday. Another of their co-defendants, Florida Chapter leader Kelly Meggs, was sentenced Thursday to 12 years behind bars on seditious conspiracy and other charges.

Rhodes, 58, of Granbury, Texas, was the first defendant on January 6 to be convicted of seditious conspiracy and receive his sentence for what prosecutors say was a weeks-long plot to forcibly block the former president’s transfer of power

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Trump to Biden. Four other Oath Keepers convicted of sedition at a second trial in January will be sentenced next week.

The January 6 Commission’s focus on sedition, explained

During his sentencing on Thursday, Rhodes defiantly claimed to be a political prisoner, criticized prosecutors and the Biden administration, and attempted to downplay his January 6 actions. The judge described Rhodes as a constant threat to the United States, which clearly wants democracy in this country to degenerate into violence.

The Oath Keepers’ verdicts this week could provide guidance for prosecutors in a separate Jan. 6 case against leaders of the extremist group Proud Boys. Earlier this month, another jury convicted former Proud Boys national president Enrique Tarrio and three other group leaders of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was another plot to keep Trump in the White House.

Before Thursday, the longest sentence in the more than 1,000 riot cases at the Capitol was 14 years and two months for a man with a long criminal record who assaulted police officers with pepper spray and a chair as he stormed the Capitol. Just over 500 of the defendants have been convicted, with more than half serving prison terms.

Richer reports from Boston.