A small group of militants’ outsize role in the Capitol attack

As federal prosecutors unveil charges in the assault on the Capitol last month, they have repeatedly highlighted two militant groups — the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — as being the most organized, accusing them of planning their strategy ahead of time and in some cases helping escalate a rally into an attack.

The two organizations stand in contrast to a majority of the mob. Of the more than 230 people charged so far, only 31 are known to have ties to a militant extremist group. And at least 26 of those are affiliated with the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.

The groups differ in their focus and tactics: The Proud Boys espouse an ideology of male and Western superiority, with members often expressing white supremacist and anti-immigrant views, while the Oath Keepers are part of an anti-government militia movement that emphasizes military-style training. But the groups have been united in their allegiance to former President Donald Trump.

Conspiracy charges, among the most serious levied so far, indicate that members of these groups may have worked together and planned their activities, potentially in ways that made them more dangerous than other rioters. Federal prosecutors have said that some members used teamwork to help people escape arrest and to direct and provoke protesters to overwhelm police defenses.

Of the 22 people charged with conspiracy crimes by mid-February, 18 were known to have ties to one of those two groups.

Another likely factor in the groups’ activities: More than one-third of the militants were also known to have military experience, a far higher proportion than in the crowd as a whole.

“Right-wing groups targeted military veterans for having the skill sets that they were looking for,” said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who specializes in military-civilian relations. “They weren’t recruiting from among the Columbia Journalism School.”

Although militants were a small part of the mob, their organizational tactics could have influenced others’ behavior and made the riot more violent, said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University. Some extremist far-right groups, particularly in Europe, have recently used larger protests as cover for more violent activities, she said.

The groups’ role in the Capitol riots helps shed light on their tactics, and it also highlights important differences among elements of the sprawling far-right landscape.

Of all the militant groups on the far-right, the Proud Boys is perhaps the one most associated with Trump, and thus it is not surprising that it appears to have had a large role in the siege at the Capitol, which grew out of his false claims that he won reelection. At least 16 people with ties to the organization are facing federal charges in the attacks. That is the most of any known entity.

As of mid-February, three separate groups of Proud Boys members faced conspiracy crime charges, with the government saying they worked together during different parts of the riot. In each of these groups, former military members played a prominent role, including in leading other members of the mob, prosecutors said.

The Proud Boys, a far-right nationalist organization with several chapters across the United States, vocally tied itself to Trump’s presidency and has tried to influence mainstream Republican politics, even as it has regularly engaged in violent skirmishes with left-wing activists.

“The Proud Boys believe the way you change a society is through its culture,” said William Braniff, a professor at the University of Maryland and director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. “They are less disciplined than militia groups but more emotive.”

The group was recently designated a terrorist organization in Canada, where the government said its members “espouse misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and/or white supremacist ideologies and associate with white supremacist groups.”

“They are a group that will get in people’s face because they want to get attention, and they want to be provocative,” Braniff said.

On the day of the riots, Proud Boys leaders used megaphones to lead a group of at least 100 people from Trump’s speech to the Capitol, prosecutors said. Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member, was among the first people to break into the Capitol building, using a stolen police riot shield to bust out a window and allow members of the mob to flood in, according to video footage and court documents.

Federal prosecutors have said members of the Oath Keepers militia group planned and organized their attack and “put into motion the violence that overwhelmed the Capitol.”

Ten people affiliated with the group have faced federal charges so far, and the FBI has said it is seeking information about others seen on video wearing tactical gear and moving in formation with other members. On Friday, the federal government announced conspiracy charges against six people prosecutors said were members of the group who stormed the Capitol. Earlier, prosecutors had charged three other people they said conspired with those six.

Unlike the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers are a more traditional militia group, focused on military-style training and with a largely anti-government stance. Federal prosecutors said members of the group “believe that the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.”

They focus more than other militant groups on recruiting people with military and law enforcement experience; of the nine people affiliated with Oath Keepers and charged with conspiracy crimes, four were military veterans.

Typically, such right-wing extremists are more likely to be involved in protests against what they view as federal overreach. Trump’s presidency turned that on its head, leading the Oath Keepers to support at least one aspect of the government: Trump himself.

According to court documents, Oath Keepers members discussed bringing “heavy weapons” to Washington after the election. Jessica Watkins, who described herself as leader of an Oath Keepers contingent called the Ohio State Regular Militia, said the group was “awaiting direction” after the election from Trump.

Members of other far-right extremist groups, including the anti-government Three Percenters militia as well as neo-Confederate and white supremacist entities, were also present at the Capitol on Jan. 6. So far, these people have not been charged with conspiracy crimes, and their numbers indicate they are unlikely to have had an organized role in the attack.

Of the 31 people with militant ties who have been charged so far, at least 11 had a military record. Although people with extremist ideologies represent a small fraction of veterans, far-right organizations heavily recruit them because of their skills, Feaver said.

Going forward, the military and federal law enforcement seem poised to take far-right extremism more seriously, domestic terrorism experts said. To do so, they will need to deal not only with the groups that played an important role in the events of Jan. 6 but also with organizations that were not involved and even looser affiliations of like-minded people.

“The traditional way of interrupting extremism is by infiltrating groups and interrupting plots,” Miller-Idriss said. “We see that with some organizations it is possible to do this. But in many cases, it is not.”

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