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Hacked documents on the website of the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers show that hundreds of people joined or renewed their memberships after many members of the group participated in the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
They included people who have joined their military ranks, including veterans, retired military personnel, at least one serving National Guard, several clergymen, and others involved in security contracts and industry. firearms.
Other documents from the hack show petition registrations as part of government or military emails, and private email addresses provided in response to calls for help from military and military personnel.
But with many of these addresses seemingly non-working or invalid, the extent of previous involvement of government and military employees in the group was not immediately clear.
The increase in membership after the Capitol Attack is evident in the payment records of the Oath Keepers website.
They show that 801 people joined the organization or made donations after Jan. 4, when founder Stewart Rhodes posted an article on the website titled “Oath Keepers Deploying to DC to Protect Events, Speakers, & Attendees on Jan 5-6: Time to Stand! “
But nearly all of that number – 788 in total – joined or donated after members of Oath Keepers participated in the raid on the Capitol building on January 6, with records showing the push took hold. magnitude in January before slowing down in February, March and April, where recordings end.
There were no email addresses linked to military or government employers in the treasury, but 10 entries noted their military ranks in an optional “title” field, which ranged from corporal to colonel, including three men who offered the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The Guardian’s investigation into the case showed the majority of them are retired, but some have continued to work in other sensitive roles.
Records show, for example, that one of the enrollees was a former lieutenant colonel in the US Marine Corps and his service included stints at corps headquarters in Quantico, Va., Before taking a position with Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor.
Another entry, Jan. 7, was apparently another Marine veteran who also worked as a bodyguard for military contractor Blackwater, as part of a US government program to provide personal protection in theaters of war. like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Several other men joined in and used the religious title of Reverend, including a man who appears to have run for office in Wyoming as a pro-Trump Republican candidate.
The pirated documents were provided to reporters by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets after an anonymous hacker broke into the Oath Keepers infrastructure.
It was not immediately clear whether the hack had exfiltrated all of the Oath Keepers’ data, or just a segment, but as it was delivered it contained discussion threads, message archives, and complete records of the Oath Keepers. members and calls to action on specific issues.
Numerous documents reveal direct communications to and from Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers.
Previous Daily Dot reports have described hundreds of military and government emails in the treasury. While many older member records and petition campaign records display such addresses, Guardian’s attempts to contact them resulted in numerous email bounces and notices that the addresses did not exist.
Likewise, many private addresses were associated with explicit calls to army and law enforcement volunteers.
In each case, it was not immediately clear whether all of the addresses currently represented military or law enforcement officers on duty, and in some cases, it was not clear whether or when the email addresses were valid. .
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