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The Air Force has referred 10 criminal charges against Maj. Jason Watson, an active-duty officer twice arrested after publicly demanding the impeachment of President Donald Trump, in one of the first prosecutions of a senior officer under a contempt statute rarely used in modern military history. As of Tuesday, Watson, 40, remained in pretrial confinement pending a court-martial proceeding that his attorney says could carry years of jail time, discharge, and loss of pay. Watson faces three violations of Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which criminalizes "contemptuous" speech by commissioned officers against the president, vice president, and other senior civilian officials, along with five counts of disobeying orders under Article 92 and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer under Article 133, according to a charging document his attorney provided to CNN and confirmed Tuesday by an Air Force spokesperson. The Article 88 counts stem from Watson's June interview with the Defenders of Our Republic Substack newsletter, his July 1 uniformed protest on the Capitol steps, and his Aug. 17 appearance on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," where he accused Trump of "flagrantly violating the Constitution" and killing Americans through unauthorized military action. Chris Mutimer, one of his attorneys, said Watson is believed to be the first officer of his rank ever charged under the statute. Convictions are historically rare because prosecutors must clear a high bar to show that remarks were disparaging rather than fair criticism. Watson, a 17-year airman most recently assigned as a logistics readiness officer in Bydgoszcz, Poland, was first arrested by Capitol Police on July 1 after Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, escorted him to the House steps for a news conference organized by the Removal Coalition, a grassroots group that lobbies Congress to impeach Trump, then left the area. Civilians are barred from demonstrating there without a sitting lawmaker, and civilian charges were later dropped. He was taken into military pretrial confinement Aug. 18, a day after the CNN interview, when he informed his chain of command he would no longer wear his uniform. Green, whose earlier disruptions of Trump's joint addresses to Congress led the House to censure him in March 2025, filed a new set of impeachment articles the same day charges were referred, accusing Trump of running U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as unaccountable paramilitary forces. It is Green's eighth such resolution; all previous attempts have failed to advance in the House. The Air Force spokesperson said Watson will remain confined pending court-martial proceedings and is presumed innocent under the UCMJ. His case may next go to an Article 32 pretrial hearing, which will determine whether it proceeds as a special court-martial, analogous to a misdemeanor trial, or a general court-martial, which can impose more severe penalties including dismissal and years of confinement.