Wyoming Republican Party Chairman William “Frank” Eathorne is one of the nearly 200 Wyoming residents listed by a whistleblower group as members of the far-right anti-government Oath Keepers group.
The FBI has described the Oath Keepers as a “paramilitary organization.” Founded in 2009, the Oath Keepers philosophy is based on a set of conspiracy theories positing that the federal government is working to destroy American liberties, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group’s name refers to the oath taken by military and police to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.
Members of the extremist group have made headlines in recent years for showing up heavily armed at Black Lives Matter protests, polling places and other events. More than 20 suspected members of the Oath Keepers have been arrested in relation to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The leader of the extremist group, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, has encouraged members not to recognize Biden as president or comply with any of his legislation.
The Oath Keepers claim tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members, according to the SPLC.
Distributed Denial of Secrets, a whistleblower group, obtained a cache of Oath Keepers-related data this fall, including the membership list and chat logs.
DDOS published 5 gigabytes of redacted data related to the hack in September.
https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/whistleblower-list-names-wyoming-gop-chair-others-as-oath-keepers/article_61a803fa-f1de-5784-8597-ebadd5c26a79.html