Published: Just now
Hundreds of police officers, elected politicians and military personnel are on a leaked list of members of the American extremist group Oath Keepers.
In a report by the civil rights organization ADL, over 38,000 people are named who are said to be on the Oath Keeper’s membership list. More than 370 work in the police and law enforcement agencies, several of them in managerial positions. Another 100 people work in the military.
According to the ADL’s report, there are also more than 80 people who either hold, or are running for, public office on the list.
According to the committee investigating the storming of the Capitol, the Oath Keepers, along with the extremist group Proud Boys, were responsible for planning the attack on January 6, 2021.
The leaked list raises renewed concerns about the presence of extremists within the agencies tasked with protecting and enforcing laws in the United States.
Several names on the list contacted by the AP news agency say they joined the organization years ago and have never been active members.
“Their views are far too extreme for me,” writes a police chief in Colorado – who says he distanced himself from the group several years ago – in an email to the AP.
Oath Keepers, founded in 2009, believes the federal government is stripping Americans of their civil rights. The group asks its members to protect the constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
More than 20 people with ties to the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, have been charged with involvement in the storming of Congress. Rhodes and four other members will go on trial later in September.
Facts
The storming of the congressional building
On January 6, 2021, the members of the United States Congress gathered in the Capitol to count the electoral votes of the presidential election and formally designate the Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the election and the next president.
In Washington DC, at the same time, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had gathered for a political mass meeting on the theme “Save America”. At the meeting, Trump repeated his claims of systematic election fraud and claimed he was the real winner. He urged his supporters to go to Congress: “If you don’t get the hell out of you, you won’t have a country anymore,” the president said.
They did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the congress building and clashed with police. Some made it as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, as well as into one of the chambers. Parts of the building were vandalized.
Five people, including a policeman, lost their lives in connection with the attack.
Read more