Leaked Oath Keepers’ Roster Shows 609 Members In Wisconsin

WISCONSIN — Several Wisconsin elected officials, law enforcement members and first responders were found in a recently leaked roster for a militia group that federal prosecutors place prominently into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol.

The group, called the Oath Keepers, was founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes. It's a loosely organized conspiracy-theory-fueled group whose members vow to defend the Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." The group also promotes a belief that the federal government is looking to strip civil liberties from citizens and paints its members as defenders against tyranny.

The data showing the group's extent in Wisconsin was collected by the Distributed Denial of Secrets and released Tuesday in a report by the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. The release revealed across the nation 38,000 members who are law enforcement officers and first responders, veterans and military members, elected officials and government employees, religious and business leaders, teachers and others.

There are 609 Oath Keepers members listed in Wisconsin, according to the report. Among them are:

Elected officials: 6
Law enforcement: 4
Military: 1
First responders: 3
Total in these four professions: 14

The data renews concern about the presence of extremists in law enforcement and the military, systems taxed with enforcing the law and protecting the United States and its citizens. It is of special concern to have public servants involved in extremist groups as lies about the 2020 presidential election continue to fuel threats against lawmakers and institutions, according to the report.

“Even for those who claimed to have left the organization when it began to employ more aggressive tactics in 2014, it is important to remember that the Oath Keepers have espoused extremism since their founding, and this fact was not enough to deter these individuals from signing up,” the report said.

At least 370 people on the leaked membership lists are law enforcement officers currently working across the country, including as local police chiefs and sheriffs. More than 100 people are current members of the military, and some 80 members who, as of early August, are either running for or have served in public office, according to the report.

Members of the Oath Keepers seeking public office include candidates for mayor, town council and school boards to state representatives and senators, the report said.

“This number is deeply concerning,” the report said. “When anti-government extremists hold elected office, it creates a dangerous opportunity for them to use their power to advance their ideology in ways that can dramatically affect their constituents and undermine democracy.”

Also, the ADL said, their involvement in anti-government extremist movements and ideologies “lends a veneer of legitimacy that can be used to further advance their agendas” and also jeopardize the proper functioning of government.

A person’s name on the Oath Keepers’ database doesn’t prove that person was involved in extremist activities, was active in the group or shares the group’s ideology.

Some of the people on the list told The Associated Press they were members of the group for a brief time years ago, and were no longer affiliated. Others said they were never dues-paying members.

“Their views were far too extreme for me,” Shawn Mobley, the Otero County, Colorado, sheriff, told the AP in an email. The tipping point for him was the Oath Keepers’ involvement in the standoff with the federal government at the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville, Nebraska, he said.

Those arrested and charged so far in the Jan. 6 attack include more than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes. He and four other Oath Keepers members are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power.

Rhodes and his co-defendants maintain their innocence and say there was no plan to attack the Capitol.

The Oath Keepers movement grew quickly within the broader anti-government movement during Barack Obama’s presidency but has struggled to keep members since the Jan. 6 attacks, Rachel Carroll Rivas, interim deputy director of research with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told the AP.

“The image of being associated with Jan. 6 was too much for many of those folks,” she said.

Among the elected officials whose name appears on the membership lists is South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen, who won a June Republican primary in his bid for reelection. Jensen told the AP he paid for a one-year membership in 2014 but never received any Oath Keepers' literature, attended any meetings or renewed his membership.

Jensen said he felt compelled to join because he “believed in the oath that we took to support the US Constitution and to defend it against enemies foreign and domestic." He wouldn't say whether he now disavows the Oath Keepers, saying he doesn't have enough information about the group today.

“Back in 2014, they appeared to be a pretty solid conservative group, I can't speak to them now,” he said.

The ADL said it found the names of at least 10 people who now work as police chiefs and 11 sheriffs. All the police chiefs and sheriffs who responded to the AP said they no longer have any ties to the group.

“I don’t even know what they’re posting. I never get any updates,” said Mike Hollinshead, sheriff of Idaho’s Elmore County. “I'm not paying dues or membership fees or anything.”

Hollinshead, a Republican, said he was campaigning for sheriff several years ago when voters asked him if he was familiar with the Oath Keepers. Hollinshead said he wanted to learn about the group and recalls paying for access to content on the Oath Keepers’ website, but that was the extent of his involvement.

Benjamin Boeke, police chief in Oskaloosa, Iowa, recalled getting emails from the group years ago and said he believes a friend may have signed him up. But he said he never paid to become a member and doesn’t know anything about the group

Eric Williams, police chief in Idalou, Texas, also said in an email that he hasn't been a member or had any interaction with the Oath Keepers in over 10 years. He called the storming of the Capitol “terrible in every way.”

“I pray this country finds its way back to civility and peace in discourse with one another,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.