By Josh Bakan, Patch staff
NEW JERSEY — Twelve members of law enforcement and one elected officials are among hundreds of New Jerseyans on the membership list of the Oath Keepers — a far-right militia accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6 insurrection — according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Several organizations that monitor domestic terrorism and hate groups have labeled the Oath Keepers as extremists, including the ADL and Southern Poverty Law Center. Few specifics about the group’s membership were publicly known until September 2021, when nonprofit journalist collective Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets) published more than 38,000 names on the Oath Keepers’ membership rolls.
The Oath Keepers differentiate themselves from other anti-government extremist groups in their explicit recruiting of current and former military, law enforcement and emergency services personnel, according to the ADL. But their beliefs don’t stray far from the norm in that sector of extremism.
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