The Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, spread to nearly every corner of Colorado over the past decade, claiming members in various law enforcement agencies, political offices and seats of power, leaked membership rolls show.
In all, more than 950 Coloradans are included on the list of more than 38,000 members nationwide, which was leaked by DDoSecrets last year.
The Colorado list includes several past and present political candidates, including some who served as county sheriffs or ran for the office — and a former sheriff who’s now the state’s public safety chief. Twenty-six people identified themselves as veterans, and four men signed up using their active-duty military emails.
Eight described themselves as current or retired law enforcement, and an analysis conducted by the Anti-Defamation League said that 14 current Colorado law enforcement officers are on the list; the group declined to name which agencies.
Founded in 2009, the Oath Keepers is part of the larger milieu of anti-government militia groups that have gained prominence in Colorado and across the country over the past decade. One of the group’s main tenets is the conspiracy theory that the federal government is being run by a secret organization attempting to take away Americans’ rights, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The hundreds of other Colorado members spanned what one researcher called everyday people: a dentist, a chiropractor, a self-described extreme athlete, a teacher, a software engineer and three nurses, according to a Denver Post analysis. The list demonstrates the spread of an extremist group that played a leading role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and other anti-government protests.
The Anti-Defamation League, which released its own analysis of the leaked membership rolls in early September, noted that a person’s presence on the list doesn’t mean they are or were an active member, and that some may have signed up after being sold a “watered-down version of the group.” It’s unclear how recent the list is; some dates appear to reference when people signed up, with the most recent entries being 2018. But many are undated.
Many of the people on the list who spoke to The Denver Post said they were either never actively involved or quickly became disillusioned with the group.
That doesn’t surprise Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers who lives in Estes Park. The group began radicalizing rapidly after the 2014 standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, he said.
“At times earlier on it was kind of sold as a Libertarian book club,” he said.
Still, three researchers interviewed for this story said, the Oath Keepers have espoused extremist goals since their founding 13 years ago, a fact that would-be members could’ve learned through even cursory research.
“The fact that these guys associated at one point in time with the Oath Keepers is unacceptable and honestly dangerous, given again their ability to marry their extremist ideology with power,” said Alex Friedfeld, an Anti-Defamation League investigator.
The leaked membership logs include notes from some of the members about why they joined and what skills they could bring to the organization. Several members alluded to a willingness to commit violence.
“Am willing to do what it takes to protect freedom,” wrote one man who listed a Denver address. “Have numerous skills that I prefer not to communicate except face-to-face.”
Law enforcement
One Coloradan on the list is Stan Hilkey, the executive director of the state’s Department of Public Safety, who served as Mesa County sheriff for more than a decade before taking the post in the governor’s cabinet in 2014. In a statement, Hilkey denied ever being an active member of the group, and he condemned the Oath Keepers’ “extremist, unconstitutional and criminal activities.”
Hilkey said as sheriff he responded to a solicitation to learn more about the Oath Keepers, a group that he said was prominent in Mesa County politics at the time. But he said his involvement with the group went no further than that, and he said he never attended any events and never “revisited their website or materials again.”
He said the Oath Keepers do not represent his beliefs and that “their activities stand in direct opposition to my values of respecting the rule of law, our democratic institutions, and every individual who makes up this great nation.”
“I am, frankly, horrified to have my name associated with this group that is known for their dangerous and hateful deeds,” Hilkey wrote, “which I fully denounce.”
Conor Cahill, a spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis, called Hilkey “an honorable public servant who has dedicated his life to serving Coloradans and upholding the laws of our state and country” in a statement Thursday afternoon.
Hilkey is not the only sheriff on the list. At least five other Coloradans listed as one-time members have either served as sheriff or ran for the office in the past decade.
Otero County Sheriff Shawn Mobley told The Post earlier this month that he initially joined the Oath Keepers because the group seemed to promote defending the Constitution. But after an armed standoff between members of the Oath Keepers and federal law enforcement in 2014, Mobley said, he became disillusioned with the group and did not renew his membership.
The list also includes Michael McIntosh, the former Adams County sheriff who’s currently campaigning to retake the office, and James Chamberlain, who is mounting a bid to become Huerfano County sheriff. Tony Fatur Jr., a 2014 Los Animas County sheriff candidate, is also listed, as is Michael McCaleb, who in 2014 ran for Washington County sheriff.
The Post spoke with all of those men, except for McCaleb, who did not return a message seeking comment. Like Hilkey, the men said they are not active members — McIntosh said he never joined the group but gave his email to receive more information. Chamberlain said he was attracted by the group’s apparent pro-Constitution stance and attended a rally in Cañon City in 2014.
“I no longer affiliate with them and haven’t since 2014,” he said in an email this week. “Nothing to do with the rally, just have differing ideologies. I believe that all elected officials swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and that should be their primary focus.”
The Oath Keepers have actively recruited law enforcement from their outset, said Stephen Piggott, a program analyst with the Western States Center, and the group has sought to make inroads with sheriffs specifically. The group is aligned with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which, among other things, claims that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority in their county, superseding state or federal agencies.
Piggott pointed to Mobley, the Otero County sheriff, as an example. In 2019, Mobley told KOAA News that he would “have a tough time even thinking about enforcing” anything that he felt was unconstitutional.
“That’s the type of ideology that the Oath Keepers are espousing,” Piggott said.
The organization’s broader interest in law enforcement and military personnel stems from two dovetailing interests, researchers said. The first is that the Oath Keepers value the skillset and training those personnel can offer, including with weapons and first aid.
The ADL said it contacted any law enforcement agency that had an active officer on the list. The Post asked a spokesman for the Colorado chapters of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Association of Chiefs of Police and the County Sheriffs of Colorado if the organizations were concerned about potential Oath Keeper members in their ranks and if those contacted by the ADL had done anything in response.
In a statement, the spokesman did not directly address the questions. He said the three organizations “do not condone any bias in policing and believe that all law enforcement officers must practice ethical and equitable policing while protecting the rights of all and keeping our communities safe.”
Several people on the membership rolls noted firearms or combat experience in their applications. A man from Montrose said he was “qualified on many weapons systems,” while a man from Lakewood wrote, “I can still shoot pretty good.”
Others were more specific.
“I am fluent and proficient with weapons systems; gained all knowledge using and maintaining M4, M240, .50Cal, Mk19, TOWSystem, and sub system,” wrote one Lakewood man, referring to a collection of military-grade weapons. “Im (sic) Comfortable and Comprehend maneuvering on ground in hostile situations.”
The second reason the Oath Keepers have an interest in military and law enforcement is that each officer or soldier who joins the group is one less the group may have to deal with in the event of a conflict, experts said.
“There’s this articulation of ‘the good ones and the bad ones,'” said Sam Jackson, a professor at the University of Albany who researches extremism and the author of a book about the Oath Keepers. “‘If you join us, you’re one of the good ones; otherwise, you’re the servant of a tyrant.'”
One master trooper with the Colorado State Patrol who spoke with The Post said he paid dues and joined the Oath Keepers in 2014 because he thought it was an organization that supported law enforcement. He never participated in the organization, he said, and learned at a training put on by the State Patrol a few months later that the Oath Keepers were more dangerous than they seemed.
Other elected officials
A number of the members have also run for office in Colorado, from school board and fire protection seats to county commission races.
The Oath Keepers’ leader, Stewart Rhodes, opened up membership to people who were neither military nor law enforcement around 2015, said Van Tatenhove.
“He was always trying to find where the most membership and the most influence and the most money could be made,” he said.
One person on the list, Jeff Orrock, is running for secretary of state this year as the Approval Voting Party’s candidate. Orrock did not return an email sent earlier this week.
Robert Harrison, who ran for a state House seat as a Libertarian two years ago and ran for a state Senate seat a decade ago, said he became a member because the group’s values seemed to match his political beliefs. He joined in 2013, according to the list. But he said he heard that some group funds were embezzled and he realized the organization was “unstable.”
He said he didn’t condone violence and that the 2014 armed standoff in Nevada further alienated him.
“If they hadn’t gone off the rails, their principles were pretty sound,” Harrison said. “But it’s a little bit out there now.”
Paul Donahue, the former mayor of Castle Rock, hung up after a reporter asked him about his inclusion on the membership list. Arlan Van Ry, an Alamosa County Commission candidate, did not return an email seeking comment. Montgomery Lee, who ran for a Custer County school board seat in 2010 and 2016, said he didn’t remember joining the group.
Jonathan Lerner, who ran for a Summit County commission seat in 2016, said he joined “a long time ago” and was not currently a member. Lerner served in the Air Force, he said, and was interested in the Oath Keepers because he “meant” the oath that he took when joining the military. He criticized elected leaders from both major political parties and said they had violated their oaths of office.
As for his ties to the Oath Keepers, he said he received a sticker from the group and that was it.
“It was not my cup of tea,” Lerner said. “I don’t do protests, I don’t do paramilitary stuff, I just keep my head down and my mouth shut, that’s all. If you looked at the reputation that (the group) has today, based on Jan. 6… it certainly didn’t have that reputation. I wouldn’t have joined it if it had.”
Several people listed on the membership rolls said they supported part of the Oath Keeper’s agenda — pro-Constitution and pro-law enforcement — and that they were unaware of its more extremist parts.
It’s plausible that someone could be ignorant of the group’s broader ideology, said Friedfeld, the ADL investigator. But while the group has become more extremist over time, particularly since 2014, he said its members have held concerning viewpoints about the government since its founding in 2009.
“They haven’t tried to hide that fact that they were extremist,” he said. “The whole thing is predicated on this idea that the government is trying to take away people’s rights and liberties and that the Oath Keepers will be the ones to stop that from happening.”
Piggott, of the Western States Center, questioned why sheriffs and other elected officials didn’t do more to vet the organization before joining or providing their personal information.
“I think a Google search back then would still bring up things that were problematic,” he said.
