More than 800 people joined, renewed memberships or made donations to the far-right nationalist group the Oath Keepers in the days surrounding the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol for which multiple members of the group are facing conspiracy charges, the Guardian reports.
Discovered through information released from a hack, the surge in membership for the group came as founder Stewart Rhodes promoted the activities of the group as “Oath Keepers Deploying to DC to Protect Events, Speakers, & Attendees on Jan 5-6: Time to Stand!” on its website.
Many of those joining or donating are former members of the military, with one donor identified as a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines and another being a Marine veteran and a former Blackwater contractor. A Republican candidate for Wyoming was also in the data dump.
The data show people listing military rank, from corporal to colonel, as their “title” in the sign-up portion of the website. Dozens of others listed “Reverend” as their title. The Guardian matched their names, titles and addresses to public information to confirm their identities.
At least 16 members of the Oath Keepers have been charged with conspiracy for coordinating an attack on the Capitol on January 6th. While the FBI noted that groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys coordinated and prepared for violence within their organization for the January 6th attack, it determined that the groups did not conspire between them.