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.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Capitol Police arrested the officer, Maj. Jason Watson, who identified himself as an active-duty service member, on the Capitol steps.<\/p>\n
He was attending a news conference<\/a> organized by the Removal Coalition, a grass-roots activist group. Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas<\/a>, who has filed articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump at least six times, also attended the event.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cCongress remains unconvinced of the urgency and necessity for them to honor their oath,\u201d he said, \u201cso we must persuade them, with our unrelenting, uncompromising civil resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n Major Watson ended his speech, in which he criticized the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies as well as its actions in Venezuela and Iran, by calling on Americans \u201cto peacefully exercise your First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n After the news conference, he stood on the Capitol steps holding a sign with the words \u201cImpeach,\u201d \u201cConvict\u201d and \u201cRemove\u201d stacked one atop the other. Shortly afterward, he was arrested on suspicion of \u201ccrowding, obstructing and incommoding,\u201d the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is generally against the law for the public to demonstrate on the House steps unless they are with a member of Congress,\u201d the police said. The statement noted that Major Watson had been \u201cescorted to the House steps by a member of Congress\u201d and that after the member left, \u201cour officers gave the man lawful orders to stop the illegal demonstration.\u201d<\/p>\n Jessica Denson, the founder of the Removal Coalition, said in an interview on Friday that the D.C. attorney general\u2019s office elected not to prosecute Major Watson for his protest, but that he was \u201ctaken directly into custody by the Air Force yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe is being detained in an Air Force base as we speak and is currently under a military gag order,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Got a confidential news tip?\u00a0The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists.<\/p>\n Christopher J. Mutimer, a lawyer for Major Watson, said it was a \u201cbeautiful irony\u201d 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMajor 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\u2019s capitol,\u201d Mr. Mutimer said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Defense Department directed questions about the arrest to the Air Force, which did not respond to email or telephone inquiries.<\/p>\n Troy E. Meink, the Air Force secretary, said in a statement on social media<\/a> on Thursday that he was \u201caware of recent reports involving an Air Force officer protesting at the United States Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI expect every Airman and Guardian to comply with all laws and policies governing personal conduct, political participation, and the wear of the uniform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Service members are prohibited from using \u201ccontemptuous words\u201d against the president, vice president, Congress and other top officials under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice<\/a>, which states that \u201cany commissioned officer\u201d who does so \u201cshall be punished as a court-martial may direct.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ms. Denson said Major Watson reached out to her in February with the intention of making a statement that would \u201cnot 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Working with Major Watson over several months, Ms. Denson said, she brought Mr. Green, a representative of Texas who recently lost a primary election<\/a>, 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\u2019s involvement until Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n