“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
—Romans 7:15
From 2007 to 2013, Donald Watkins Sr. and Donald Watkins Jr. fraudulently solicited over $10 million from investors into their company, Masada Resource Group. The father and son team claimed the funds would be used to bolster the business, which they pitched as having the technology to turn trash into ethanol.
Yet, the real alchemy at play was transforming investor funds into personal gain.
“Victim money was used to pay for Donald Watkins Sr.’s alimony, hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, personal loan payments, a private jet and clothing purchased by Donald Watkins Jr. and his wife,” the DOJ wrote post-conviction.
In 2019, Watkins Sr. was convicted on seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy. Watkins Jr. was convicted on one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. Both were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay joint restitution of approximately $14 million.
In 2022, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their convictions and sentences, rejecting arguments about insufficient evidence and other trial issues.
Despite their convictions, I think it safe to surmise that both father and son remain unrepentant on this charge – though I cannot prove or disprove the content of their hearts.
Watkins Sr. is especially defiant of the court’s findings, writing that he was “railroaded” by racist white judges and prosecutors that “wanted an opportunity to nail me to the cross even if they had to manufacture a criminal case to do so.”
“Republican politicians in Alabama consistently target me for beatdowns because of my success in law, business, and life,” Watkins Sr. explains. “They also hate my intelligence and outspokenness. They only like ingratiating, deferential ‘Negroes.’”
Ironically, Watkins Sr.’s defiant public pose strikes me as downright Trumpian – except with less charisma, less talent, and less success.
That said, Watkins Sr. may just be, as the song says, “Donald Trump (Black Version).”
Watkins Sr.’s spirited defense certainly parallels Trump’s own against a “weaponized” and “rigged” political system – both often deploying unapologetic tactics packed full of bombastic rhetoric, cynical accusations meant to undermine the legitimacy of the institutions they battle, and clever appeals to the emotional zeal of pride and tribe.
Indeed, Watkins Sr.’s similarity to Trump may very well reveal a fundamental lesson about politics. Though he claims to hate the white GOP establishment in Alabama for their injustice against him and the systemic sin they represent, he seems more than willing to do all manner of what he accuses them of doing. He does what he claims to hate while never accepting any justice in his own punishment.
He, like so many other political players (including his opponents), seems to have been given over to the notion that the law is not an imperfect tool of justice meant to educate men of their evil through punishment and command – but a wicked weapon wielded by corrupt elites to excuse their own force and fraud while punishing the force and fraud of their enemies.
Perhaps he’s right to believe this about law and politics. I myself have feared it may be true.
Under such a view of politics, the law only ever reveals the sins of the other guy and never your own. Under such a view of politics, the only unforgivable sin is admitting guilt or defeat, even if it means doing what one hates to see your enemies do – the lesson being, “Do unto others what you would hate to have them do unto you!” Under this view, a criminal conviction in court isn’t considered proof positive of one’s own sins but the sins of one’s enemies and the rot of systemic sin.
And even when your enemies successfully convict you, even when you fail to prevail on appeal, you can always deny the justice of your punishment and rely on your friends!
That brings me to Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed’s announcement that he is hiring his “lifelong friend” Donald Watkins Jr. as the new small business development director for his city.
Who better to manage grants, loans, commercial relationships, and access to capital for Montgomery small businesses than a guy convicted for a premeditated investment fraud scheme for which he and his father seemingly remain unrepentant?
What small business entrepreneur doesn’t want to work on financing solutions with a politically well-connected felon convicted for multimillion dollar financial fraud in his own business dealings?
Could this new hire turn out like the tenure of former Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert, who after being hired despite rumors of sexual misconduct during his time in the New Orleans Police Department, had to resign as Montgomery’s police chief two years into the job surrounded again by rumors of sexual misconduct?
Just as the Watkins team falsely promised their investors the technology to alchemize trash into ethanol, Reed now promises to magically transform a white-collar fraudster’s trash criminality into equity, justice, and greater representation for small businesses in Montgomery.
Buyer beware!
Though some might think this merely a corrupt decision by a corrupt mayor akin to letting the fox guard the hen house, I can’t help but see this as a keen Machiavellian move of political patronage by Reed to help Watkins Jr. so that together they may carry on their respective families’ political legacies – all while putting a fist with a middle finger in the air against Alabama’s white GOP establishment.
Their fathers taught them well, almost too well. Better to hire a loyal and cunning fox ready to lay and recognize traps rather than some dutiful guard dog who only knows to bark “justice” when a hen goes missing. After all, in politics, sometimes hens need to go missing.
They and their fathers might rightfully say they learned their ways from hard-fought experience battling their political enemies’ oppressive systems and evil weaponization of the law against them – though I wonder how many of their enemies would say the same of them.
Perhaps, everyone is right about the evil they see in their enemies.
Why do men see the crookedness of other men as license to be crooked? Why do men hate their enemies only to emulate them in their hatred? Why does what we hate become an excuse for us to pour out our hatred?
The law reveals sin to men but cannot free men from it.
Only when men repent – only when they recognize the justice of their punishments and welcome God’s grace through faith – will they ever find hope to be freed from doing the very thing they hate.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL, M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances, as well as any feedback, please email [email protected]. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
