Reporting Highlights
Militias After Jan. 6: Internal messages reveal how AP3, one of the
largest U.S. militias, rose even as prosecutors pursued other paramilitary
groups after the assault on the Capitol.
Organized Vigilantism: AP3 has already sought to shape American life
through armed vigilante operations � at the Texas border, outside ballot
boxes and during Black Lives Matter protests.
Close Ties With Police: AP3 leaders have forged alliances with law
enforcement around the U.S. Internal files reveal their strategies for
building these ties and where they�ve claimed success.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on
this story.
Last February, some 20 men and their wives gathered for dinner at an
upscale restaurant in Spokane, Washington, for their annual Valentine�s
Day celebration. The men weren�t just friends; they did community service
work together. They had been featured on local television, in khakis and
baseball caps, delivering 1,200 pounds of food to an area veterans�
center; they were gearing up for their next food drive, which they called
Operation Hunger Smash. A few days after the holiday, the men went camping
in the snow-speckled mountains outside Spokane, where they grilled rib-
eyes and bacon-wrapped asparagus over a bonfire.
They also engaged in more menacing activities. They assembled regularly �
sometimes wearing night-vision goggles in the dark � to practice storming
buildings together with semiautomatic rifles. Their drills included using
sniper rifles to shoot targets from distances of half a mile. And they
belonged to a shadowy organization whose members were debating, with ever
more intensity, whether they should engage in mass-scale political
violence.
They were among the thousands of members of American Patriots Three
Percent, a militia that has long been one of the largest in the United
States and has mostly managed to avoid scrutiny. Its ranks included cops
and convicted criminals, active-duty U.S. soldiers and small-business
owners, truck drivers and health care professionals. Like other militias,
AP3 has a vague but militant right-wing ideology, a pronounced sense of
grievance and a commitment to armed action. It has already sought to shape
American life through vigilante operations: AP3 members have �rounded up�
immigrants at the Texas border, assaulted Black Lives Matter protesters
and attempted to crack down on people casting absentee ballots.
Now with the presidential election less than 100 days away, AP3 members
see the fate of their country turning on a turbulent, charged campaign.
They�re certain that Democrats will try to steal � not for the first time,
in their view � the White House from Donald Trump. �The next election
won�t be decided at a Ballot Box,� an AP3 leader wrote several months ago
in a private Telegram chat. �It�ll be decided at the ammo box.� He has
said he is ready to force his way into voting centers if need be, or
�whatever it takes.�
The public�s impression of American militias is dominated by Jan. 6, 2021.
Groups such as the Proud Boys had plotted to prevent the transfer of power
from Trump to Joe Biden. They formed the vanguard of the mob that stormed
the Capitol that day, according to the Department of Justice. Media
coverage since has centered on the prosecutions of participants, with
hundreds of rioters sent to prison.
But despite the riot and its fallout, militias are far from extinct. AP3
has expanded at a dramatic pace since Jan. 6, while keeping much of its
activity out of view. This rise is documented in more than 100,000
internal messages obtained by ProPublica, spanning the run-up to Jan. 6
through early 2024. Along with extensive interviews with 22 current and
former members of AP3, the records provide a uniquely detailed inside view
of the militia movement at a crucial moment.
The messages reveal how AP3 leaders have forged alliances with law
enforcement around the country and show the ways in which, despite an
initial crackdown by social media, they have attracted a new wave of
recruits. A change in the political climate has also helped: In a matter
of months after Jan. 6, rioters went from pariahs to heroes in the
rhetoric of prominent Republican politicians. By the summer of 2021,
people were enlisting in AP3, saying that Jan. 6 inspired them to join.
A portrait emerges of a group alternating between focused action and self-
destructive chaos and facing a schism over whether political engagement
can still address our nation�s problems � or whether violence is the only
option. It can be hard to discern the line between bluster and imminent
threat in the messages, a perennial struggle for FBI agents who monitor
paramilitary groups. But some senior AP3 members grew so alarmed that they
quit, scared by the number of people, even high-level leaders, advocating
acts of terror.
The materials also shed light on what former national security officials
say is the most urgent question regarding militias: Will Jan. 6 prove the
high water mark of the movement�s violence or merely a prelude to
something more catastrophic? AP3 leaders have sometimes characterized the
storming of the Capitol as a botched job, a failure of ill-formed plans
that didn�t go far enough. �The Jan 6 event made the movement look weak
and uncommitted,� one wrote a year and a half after the riot in a secret
channel. �Had the house been taken for real and held we would all be in a
different world.�
This is the story of a militia fighting for its survival, determined not
to make the same mistake twice.
�Life Is Too Fucking Short�
On a Thursday afternoon in February 2021, Scot Seddon, national commander
of AP3, sent an audio message to his deputies in a channel open only to
the group�s leadership. A former Army reservist, Seddon had founded AP3
when he was in his 30s and shaped it into a national force. Now he was 50,
with a receding hairline, his beard overtaken by gray. In videos from this
time, typically recorded in his kitchen, Seddon favored baseball caps and
tight shirts that revealed his bulky shoulders and trapezius muscles. He
looked like an aging bro who had just returned from the gym. �I hate this
movement more every day,� Seddon said that February day, �and I really
don�t even want to be a part of it anymore.�
It had been a few weeks since the Capitol riot. The FBI was already
arresting leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two of AP3�s
prominent counterparts. Another militia was about to dissolve. One of
Seddon�s lieutenants had issued a dark forecast: The reaction to Jan. 6
could destroy our movement. Everyday Americans will recoil.
At least Seddon didn�t have to fear going to prison. AP3 had spent weeks
preparing to go to Washington, D.C., for Biden�s inauguration on Jan. 20,
with one of his top deputies promising to �mad max this shit.� Whether
through luck, foresight or miscalculation, Seddon had decided to save his
forces for that event rather than deploy them at the Jan. 6 rally. Plenty
of his members went anyway; some fought with police officers on the
Capitol steps. But they were under orders not to wear AP3 insignia,
according to two former lieutenants to Seddon, and the organization was
never publicly linked to the rioters.
That did not save AP3 from the fallout. Membership plummeted. AP3ers lost
friends and business. Active-duty police officers quit out of fear of
losing their jobs.
What�s more, AP3�s best recruiting tool was essentially gone: Facebook had
cracked down on paramilitary organizing. �Facebook has been our greatest
weapon. It�s gotten us where we are today,� Seddon told his troops. He
later described those months as a period of personal �misery� and self-
doubt. �I had a drinking problem,� he would confide to the group. �The
bottle was consuming me.�
By the middle of 2021, some AP3 leaders were ready to give up. In July,
the head of its Arizona chapter announced he was stepping down. �My life
is too fucking short to beg people to do what�s right,� he said. He had
hardly any members left in his state, and rebuilding was proving
impossible. Still, he added, �It has been a great honor to me to have been
here (and stayed here) through some of the most trying times this movement
has seen since April 19, 1995.�
Nobody needs to explain the significance of ??that date to a militia
member. It was the day a Gulf War veteran with militia ties named Timothy
McVeigh blew up a government building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people
and injuring hundreds more. The modern militia movement � loosely
speaking, a wide variety of groups whose shared traits are military-style
training, an affinity for guns and a belief that they are the last line of
defense against the excesses of the government and the left � started in
the early 1990s and had been growing rapidly. But after the bombing, the
movement crumbled. It didn�t recover until 2008, when a financial crisis
and Barack Obama�s presidential election kindled a new generation of
leaders like Seddon.
But the political climate after Jan. 6 would be very different from the
period after McVeigh�s attack. Soon, Seddon�s group would have momentum
back on its side.
Lions and Men
Seddon seems like an unlikely commander of a paramilitary organization.
Raised in the suburbs of Long Island, he bounced between jobs through his
early 40s, including stints as the manager for a small-time rapper and as
a model. Seddon appeared on book jackets, including a vampire romance
novel titled �Love�s Last Bite.� And there he was, in an awkward shirtless
pose with a woman in lingerie, on the cover of �How to Handle a Younger
Man: A Collection of Five Erotic Stories.�
It was in internet forums for models, during the latter years of the
George W. Bush administration, where Seddon�s right-wing politics started
to emerge publicly. He would engage in lengthy sparring with his peers,
heckling them with insults: �we dominate you libs� and �you SOUND LIKE A
FRENCHMEN need I say more?�
Seddon grew increasingly alienated � he would later say that he felt �very
alone� after Obama was elected � and engaged. He became active on a
Facebook page to support Iraq War veterans. And then, during Obama�s first
term, he used that as a launchpad to create AP3. At the time, Seddon did
not yet own a firearm, according to one of his first recruits.
Like many militias, AP3 was suffused with a military ethos. It adopted the
hierarchy and nomenclature, with ranks such as �command sergeant major.�
One credential most conferred authority: military service.
Seddon described himself as a veteran and, in a public resume, stated that
he had served in Operation Desert Storm. He would tell Army stories to AP3
members and show them a photo of himself as a young soldier. Even his
closest confidants in the group were left with the impression that he had
substantial military experience.
But Seddon did not, in fact, serve in a combat zone. He joined the Army
Reserve, without any prior stint in the military, more than a year after
Desert Storm was over, according to his discharge papers and military
personnel records. His active-duty tenure lasted for five months, the
documents say, and ended when he finished his initial training.
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Seddon declined to be interviewed for this article. Presented with an
extensive list of written questions, he responded, �Lions do not concern
themselves with the opinions of men.�
�J6 Made Me Want to Join�
Seddon�s vision for AP3 was novel for the time: a national organization,
with chapters across the country operating under his command. After Obama
announced a plan for tougher gun control in his second term, membership
exploded, former leaders said. One told ProPublica that their local
chapter grew from four or five people to over 200 in less than a year.
By 2016, AP3 had an active presence in 48 states, according to the
Southern Poverty Law Center � larger than any other organization the anti-
extremism watchdog was tracking. AP3 was part of the loose confederation
known as the Three Percenters, a set of right-wing groups that take their
name from the claim that only 3% of colonists fought in the American
Revolution. At its peak, by Seddon�s likely exaggerated count, AP3 had
40,000 to 50,000 members. After the Jan. 6 riot, insiders and experts
estimate the total was, at most, in the low thousands.
Seddon set about rebuilding the group in 2021. It was difficult initially
and made even harder by his own struggles. When the pandemic started, he
had a job as a doctor�s technician in New York City, but he refused to get
vaccinated and left the medical field. He tried to get licensed as a
realtor, then as a personal trainer, and found gig economy work near
Scranton, Pennsylvania. He often recorded video directives to his troops
from his car while driving between deliveries for Uber Eats.
He began reinvigorating the remnants of his command. His communications
offered a mix of elements that his followers found compelling. There was
lots of posturing: �Fuck the federal government,� he offered as an opener
in one video. �These rats, these devils,� he said in another, �the only
way they�re going to start listening is fear.� But Seddon also hailed his
members as patriots, heroes, and praised their deeds with an �awesome job
bro.� Seddon traveled the country. He would drop by at AP3�s training
exercises, where veterans might teach close-quarters gun combat at an
abandoned car dealership or lead sniper rifle practice at a suburban
ranch.
Recruiting new members and unifying the old ones � a disparate roster that
brought together men with white nationalist ties and Black military vets �
demanded constant effort. Seddon avoided getting pinned down on one
controversial question: what precisely his group�s purpose was. �Resisting
all efforts to undermine our constitution and the American way of life,�
AP3�s mission statement read, at once lofty and vague. �Together we will
return our country to the glory it once was.� Many members were furious
about COVID-19 restrictions and the �LGBTQ agenda.� Gun control, they
thought, was an injustice that might be worth dying over. But Seddon
imposed no litmus test. �We have some [members] that are fixated on
Muslims,� as one leader put it. �Most are fixated on Antifa and BLM.�
Under Seddon, AP3 was both an armed right-wing resistance group and
something akin to a Rotary Club; camaraderie was as important a draw as
ideology. AP3 members patrolled city streets with AR-15-style rifles and
baseball bats during Black Lives Matters protests. They practiced
attacking dummies with knives. But they also taught each other how to save
money on groceries through gardening and organized seminars where they
wrote reports on each Constitutional amendment. One member said the group
dispatched trucks filled with clothes and furniture to his family after a
wildfire destroyed their house. AP3 had its own monthly magazine, with
militia news in the front pages and word games for kids in the back.
By August 2021, Seddon�s lieutenants noticed that the backlash to the
Capitol riot was starting to dissipate. A new type of member was signing
up. �J6 made me want to join,� a recruit wrote that month in a Telegram
channel. He hadn�t been part of a militia before, he explained, but seeing
how �true Patriots� were being treated, �it was time to actually do
something.�
Seddon sought ways to capitalize on the improving political climate. In
Alabama, members fanned out to shops around the state, where they dropped
off stacks of business cards encouraging patriots to �do your part.� �The
APIII Alabama Recruitment line has rang non stop today,� a leader reported
back afterward. �I honestly wasn�t expecting it to get this big.�
In Washington state, AP3 members in the military reserves touted the
militia to fellow reservists during their units� regular monthly drills.
One chapter looked into purchasing billboard ads. In internal chats, many
members agreed the �best place to recruit� is Veterans Affairs facilities.
By the fall, they had arrived at a more efficient method. Facebook�s
public posture hadn�t wavered. AP3 was still on its list of banned
�dangerous organizations.� Again and again in press releases, the company
said its efforts to combat militias were stronger than ever.
Inside AP3, though, leaders were seeing something different: The social
media giant was gradually loosening its controls.
A Meta spokesperson said Facebook was still actively working to keep AP3
off its platform. �This is an adversarial space,� she said, �and we often
see instances of groups or individuals taking on new tactics to avoid
detection and evade our policies and enforcement.�
Seddon would soon tell leaders there were �huge opportunities to recruit
using Facebook� again. AP3 experienced such an influx of aspiring members
that leaders struggled to keep up. �GUYS WE REALLY NEED SOME HELP,� one of
Seddon�s deputies wrote in a typical appeal in an internal chat. �GOT 175
PEOPLE WAITING TO GET IN.�
It was a sorely needed shot of adrenaline.
�Our Force Multiplier�
The cover of the February 2022 issue of AP3�s magazine Credit:Obtained by
ProPublica
In the view of many AP3 leaders, their chances of success hinged on
building alliances with another heavily armed sector of society: police
and sheriffs� departments. If they couldn�t get the agencies to fight
alongside them, they at least needed the cops to leave them alone. Many
organizations like AP3 share this approach; a leaked FBI counterterrorism
guide from 2015 noted that investigations of �militia extremists� often
find �active links to law enforcement officers.� The details of those
efforts rarely come into public view.
One test of that strategy occurred in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as the
prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse was winding to a close in 2021. When Black
Lives Matter protests and civil unrest overtook Kenosha the year before,
Rittenhouse had ventured into the scrum with a semiautomatic rifle and
killed two people. Prosecutors called it murder; Rittenhouse called it
self-defense. Within AP3, he�d become a folk hero. �Kyle represents every
one of us,� one leader said.
In September 2021, with Rittenhouse�s trial two months away, AP3 leaders
were preparing for what would happen after the verdict. If he were
acquitted, there might be riots in Kenosha. And if there were riots, the
militia might deploy a team that could be in the same position as
Rittenhouse had been in, walking armed into a volatile situation. They
wanted local law enforcement on their side.
The head of AP3�s Wisconsin chapter, a truck driver, had already contacted
the Kenosha County sheriff. He�d invited a couple of local officers over
for beers, too. The sheriff wasn�t interested in help from a militia, the
chapter head reported in an internal chat. (The sheriff did not respond to
attempts to seek comment.) Seddon told him he wasn�t trying hard enough:
�I hate these kind of excuses.�
On Sept. 20, Seddon recorded a speech with more full-throated instructions
for courting law enforcement. He already had officers as members: One AP3
leader in Alabama would send video messages while driving in his police
uniform. Seddon wanted to move up the chain of command. �We need to pick
the good apples and we need to have them infiltrate the minds of those on
the inside that stand on the fence,� he said. �It�s like building an
army.�
He knew that was harder to achieve when you�re seen as anti-government
extremists. So Seddon had created a playbook for presenting AP3 as a
misunderstood club for good Samaritans. Leaders encouraged members to get
local police departments involved in AP3�s food drives for homeless
people. Seddon emphasized that these community service projects, a source
of pride for many members, were invaluable public relations coups.
His members distributed brochures � �WE ARE NOT A MILITIA!!!!!� they
declared � at rallies and to police officers. This was a branding decision
to make people like cops feel comfortable supporting or joining AP3,
Seddon said in internal messages, even though �we all know better.�
Seddon pushed members to contact sheriffs in their regions and had his
deputies send Excel spreadsheets to the militia�s rank and file. The
documents listed every sheriff in each member�s state, with columns to
mark whether they were Republicans and �friendly.�
Sometimes it came easily. During the 2022 election, the county where
Burley Ross, head of AP3�s North Carolina chapter, lived had an open seat
for sheriff. In an interview with ProPublica, Ross said he approached both
candidates and asked: If the federal government wanted you to take
someone�s guns, what would you do?
�I�m 100% not taking someone�s guns,� Scott Hammonds, the Republican
candidate, responded, according to Ross. When his Democratic opponent said
he�d enforce the law, Ross suggested that if he tried that, someone would
leave the encounter in a body bag.
Hammonds won. Then as sheriff, he became an �off the books� member of AP3,
according to messages Ross sent in internal chats. Some of Hammonds�
deputies started training with the group, Ross wrote. �For us to train
with the deputies, that�s a plus for us,� he told ProPublica, �because we
understand how they work.� ProPublica could not independently confirm
Hammonds� relationship with the group. Hammonds did not respond to
repeated requests for comment.
Police officers weren�t the only ones quietly allying with AP3. Some
lawmakers did, too. Among them was a North Carolina state legislator who
was an off-the-books member, Ross wrote in an internal chat. It was Keith
Kidwell, leader of the state House Freedom Caucus. (Ross asked ProPublica
to make clear he did not name Kidwell or Hammonds in interviews and that
ProPublica identified them using the AP3 messages it obtained. Kidwell did
not respond to requests for comment.)
AP3�s �commanding officer� in Oklahoma, Ed Eubanks, took an especially
calculated approach to cultivating ties with police. A competitive shooter
who said he�d been a sniper in the Special Forces, Eubanks was older than
most in the militia, in his 60s and retired. He was an �outcast� in his
liberal family, he wrote to a group of about 100 militia members, echoing
a common theme in the group. He had a lot of time to dedicate to AP3.
Eubanks announced in a 2021 internal chat that he was setting up �a PR
team to start making inroads� with law enforcement across Oklahoma. He let
officers use shooting ranges on his property. He built a barbecue smoker
with �APIII� on the side to use for meet-and-greets with police
departments. It was just the sort of creativity Seddon was hoping for.
Eubanks would claim success with multiple law enforcement agencies,
particularly the Oklahoma City police force. Messages from 2020 show the
courtship in its beginnings. Eubanks described his plans to stage a
counterprotest at an upcoming �defund the police� rally in Oklahoma City
in order to �build a better relationship with the OKCPD.� After the rally,
Eubanks reported that he had made connections with city police officers
who would be giving him intel (and barbecue � they�d invited AP3 members
to a cookout at police union headquarters after the event).
In the years that followed, the invitations to functions at the union
lodge continued, according to messages from Eubanks and another AP3
member. Eubanks said police notified him when rallies were happening and
that the militia got �minute by minute updates� from officers at some
events.
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma City police department said it was �going
to pass� on a request for an interview and did not respond to detailed
written questions. Mark Nelson, president of the local Fraternal Order of
Police, said that AP3 was never invited to an official union event, but
that officers can host private events at the union lodge and he would
�have no idea� who was invited. In response to detailed questions, Eubanks
declined to comment.
One of Eubanks� members said he pretended to be a Black Lives Matter
supporter at one protest in the city because police had asked AP3 to embed
a member inside BLM and report back. �The demonic presence there when the
leaders showed up,� the member wrote, �was downright oppressive.�
ProPublica could not determine the full extent of AP3�s ties to the
Oklahoma City police, but Eubanks contended in a message that his efforts
were �worth every second.� As he put it in another message, �This will be
our force multiplier when the time arises.�
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AP3 on Patrol
By mid-2022, Seddon was growing ebullient. He�d toned down his drinking,
he told his comrades. In videos, he looked clean cut and slimmed down.
Recruiting was booming, with as many as 50 people applying each day. His
members were providing security details for county GOP events again. And
the militia�s first major operation since the Capitol riot was well
underway.
Seddon had sounded a call to arms in late 2021. Illegal border crossings
were surging, and the Texas governor had declared that his state was
�abandoned� by the federal government. �Our country is being invaded at
the Southern border,� Seddon said. �Haitians, Middle Easterners, South
American invaders that are coming in.� He had about 20 members preparing
to deploy to Quemado, Texas, he said, and was seeking more volunteers.
Anyone interested would need to bring an AR-15-style carbine and a
semiautomatic pistol. They would conduct vigilante patrols, a regular
feature at the border since the 1970s. Another leader explained the rules.
�It is a felony to detain these folks under Texas law,� he said. �We can
only report to the authorities, but we are allowed to carry live rounds.�
Many members said they didn�t want to go if they couldn�t kill migrants.
�??The most heard comment I get� is �there is only one way to stop them,�
one leader told Seddon. AP3 joined forces with another militia and soon
had members in Quemado, sleeping at a Christian charity 1,000 feet from
the Rio Grande.
The charity�s leaders, terrified of the Mexican cartels that helped
transport some migrants, were initially grateful for the support. They put
the militiamen up in twin bunk beds in little rooms that resembled a
hospital ward. AP3 would keep a presence at the border for at least the
next year and a half. Their members caught migrants and turned them over
to the authorities. In time, messages claim, they were patrolling over
10,000 acres of land.
Eubanks helped lead the operation. At night, he�d split members up to
cover more ground. Then he would don camouflage fatigues and venture alone
into the pitch darkness, a shotgun in his hand.
In internal chats, Eubanks bragged about the allies they�d cultivated,
including Brad Coe, a cowboy-hat-wearing local sheriff who had publicly
praised border militias and regularly discussed immigration on Fox News.
Coe shared intel with him and discussed the idea of Eubanks �running a
bush team to track the cartel,� Eubanks told Seddon and others. Eubanks
complained in the chats that the Texas Department of Public Safety was
�refusing to work with us� but said AP3 was collaborating with the Border
Patrol and the National Guard, who installed �observation pads for us to
use along the river.�
The partnerships didn�t always go smoothly. Once, an AP3 member got into
an argument with a National Guardsman that turned physical. �He kicked the
shit out of the national guardsman,� Ross, who helped coordinate the
operation, told ProPublica. �I called him and said, �You cannot beat up
the national guardsmen any more.�� (Local law enforcement arrived but
decided not to make any arrests, according to Ross.)
Coe did not respond to requests for comment. A Border Patrol spokesperson
did not address ProPublica�s questions about its agents but said that
civilians �involving themselves in border security related activities� is
�unlawful� and �dangerous.� In response to detailed questions, the Texas
Military Department, which oversees the Texas National Guard, issued a
one-sentence statement: �The Texas Military Department does not provide
support to or operate with local militias.�
As the operation expanded, Eubanks sent back pictures of hundreds of
migrants the militias had �rounded up,� huddled on the ground, often
surrounded by Border Patrol or what appear to be National Guard members.
The militiamen would return excited after stopping a group at gunpoint,
according to Lorraine Mercer, the charity�s ministry director, who got to
know the men over many months as their host. They didn�t always wait for
government agents to arrive, Mercer said. �Some of them were trying to run
them back into Mexico,� she told ProPublica. They�d say, �We�ll handle
them, the Border Patrol doesn�t know what they�re doing.�
Seddon wanted the operation to get even more ambitious. And he had a
scheme he thought could make that possible. �The bottom line is we need to
start making money,� he told state leaders in July 2022. His answer was to
create a nonprofit called American Community Outreach Network.
ACON�s website gave no indication of its ties to AP3. It was advertised as
a charity that provided services in disaster zones and to disadvantaged
youth.
But in internal chats, Seddon was explicit that ACON was a way to fund the
militia. �I want every single one of us to fucking get rich,� he said in
one video. �I want to be sitting on a yacht in two years with every one of
you,� he said in another. Members would receive a 20% cut of any donations
they brought in, he promised.
This was more than a get-rich-quick ploy, in Seddon�s telling. It could
help AP3 thrive in the post-Jan. 6 era. �I feel reborn,� he said as the
plan moved ahead. Imagine if people didn�t need to juggle militia duties
with their day jobs, �if every single one of us had the ability to do this
full-time,� he said. It�d be so much easier to mobilize troops to the
border or anywhere else.
�It�s Going to Be a Blood Bath�
�This election is do or die for us,� Seddon told his lieutenants in August
2022. The midterm elections were months away, and Democrats controlled the
White House and both chambers of Congress. If we can�t retake Congress
now, Seddon said in a video, �we�re in real, real deep shit.� He had a
plan to get involved.
Seddon wanted AP3 to fan out across the country, stake out ballot boxes
and deter fraudulent voting, which he claimed was rampant during the 2020
election. �We�re trying to persuade these people maybe that�s not such a
good idea,� Seddon said about supposed liberal ballot stuffers. �There�s a
large group of what look like some pretty badass patriots outside.� The
operation was shortly underway in Arizona, Colorado and Michigan, though
it�s unclear how many members heeded Seddon�s call.
Absentee ballots had barely made it into voters� mailboxes before it all
went awry. Eubanks posted a handheld video of a television screen in an
internal chat: �NBC Nightly News� was showing surveillance footage of a
man in Maricopa County, Arizona. The man hadn�t been identified, but
inside AP3, they knew who he was: a Marine veteran named Elias Humiston.
Several years before, he had pleaded guilty to an illegal firearm
discharge. Now he was at the center of a national news cycle.
Humiston was captured on camera outside a drop box for absentee ballots.
His face was masked, and he had a handgun and wore a tactical vest. He had
gotten into a confrontation with a woman who tried to record his license
plate, prompting the sheriff�s department to arrive.
�Now the DOJ is involved,� Eubanks wrote four days after the incident.
Government attorneys said such activities could constitute illegal voter
intimidation. But the authorities didn�t appear to know that the anonymous
vigilante was a part of AP3.
Humiston had held a leadership role in AP3 and had recently won an award
from the militia for his work at the border. He promptly resigned �to
protect� AP3, records show. He was never charged with a crime or publicly
linked to the militia. (Humiston did not respond to requests for comment.)
Some leaders said that Humiston�s efforts �should be applauded.� Another
camp saw the mission as a foolhardy mistake by Seddon. �Poorly planned and
horribly executed,� one leader called it.
Seddon told everyone to stop acting like cowards. �If it�s not this, it�s
the fact that we�re white, that we�re Christian,� he said. The DOJ is
�going to come at us no matter what we do,� Seddon continued. �Communism �
that�s where this country is leading if we don�t take a stand.�
Seddon had always had a short fuse. But he was becoming increasingly
militant and inflammatory, according to several longtime members. In
messages, he raged against �pedophilia� in schools and the �panels of
blacks� �disrespecting white Americans� on MSNBC. When Congress increased
the IRS� budget, he declared that revenue agents were coming to �kill our
kids.� Once, in a voice note he recorded while driving, he paused. �I
almost ran over this nigger,� Seddon said. �I am not racist � just these
dirty fucks walking these streets.�
Seven former leaders told ProPublica they became alarmed by how the
rhetoric was shifting in AP3. In the days after Jan. 6, Seddon had
suppressed calls for violence, telling members who wanted to assassinate
politicians to stand down. But he had stopped acting as a voice of
restraint, even as such talk increased.
One morning in August 2022, an ex-cop with at least 100 AP3 members under
his command announced a mysterious initiative. He had previously said it
was time to take a violent stand against Black Lives Matter: �We will have
to suffer some and some will die,� he said, but he was �tired of waiting.�
Now he said he planned to assemble a �Tac Team� of �those who will do what
others won�t.�
A different afternoon, a different leader put forward his own proposal.
�We havnt made any head way in the last 5 plus years,� he wrote. Let�s
pick a date and descend on government buildings across the country, he
suggested, and then kill the officials who�ve committed treason. �Time to
stack body�s up.� (Two others told him to arrange a secret meeting
offline.)
After the 2022 midterms, Ross made a plea in an internal chat. �APIII AND
EVERY OTHER PATRIOT group seems to want a fight,� he wrote. �A war will
leave no winners.� Ross, too, believed that civil war was inevitable, but
he pushed for the group to focus on grassroots politics in the meantime.
�There�s going to be a time to be violent,� he told ProPublica. �I�m the
type of person who�s like, �Now is not the time.�� In AP3, that made him a
moderate.
A growing faction had lost hope in the democratic process. Elections and
activism are pointless, they maintained; even the midterms were rife with
fraud. They felt out of alternatives. Their talk was now a steady
drumbeat:
�Get it over with I�ll die with honor.�
�It�s going to be a blood bath.�
�When does AP3 as a whole say, that�s enough and stand up?�
�I Know Where You Live�
Seddon�s downfall started around the turn of this year. An AP3 member,
increasingly suspicious, had obtained a copy of his military discharge
papers. That was enough to cause an explosion. After years of touting his
Army experience, Seddon�s secret was exposed.
He tried to suppress the uprising that ensued. He threatened a former
leader who confronted him about the records in private. �I know where you
live,� Seddon wrote on Facebook Messenger. �Tread careful.� Ross accused
Seddon of stolen valor and was kicked out.
Seddon�s command quickly began to unravel. A rumor started to spread: Law
enforcement was investigating the ACON scheme. The charity had never taken
off. One of Seddon�s ex-deputies told ProPublica it raised less than
$5,000. But its website falsely advertised it as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
authorized to accept tax-deductible donations, which the IRS said is not
true.
Leaders who had spent months encouraging the initiative now condemned ACON
as a scam to put money in Seddon�s pocket. �Not volunteering for a Rico
trial,� one member wrote in a side chat, referring to the racketeering
statute that prosecutors use to take down the mafia. In the spring, state
chapters began to defect from AP3 in droves.
Soon Seddon had lost a significant majority of his organization. Former
leaders estimate that about 10 state chapters stayed on, leaving him to
try to rebuild the militia�s presence everywhere else.
Seddon appears undaunted. He�s lost a large chunk of his membership before
and managed to recover. (Meanwhile, the instability in his career
continues. Recently, he started a business that offers �fast cash� to
cancer patients who sign over their life insurance policies.)
His recent setbacks seem to have only made him more volatile. Toward the
end of Trump�s criminal trial in May, Seddon wrote on Facebook that Judge
Juan Merchan was treating the former president unfairly. �This guy needs
to meet his maker,� Seddon said. He followed up by posting the judge�s
home address.
Facebook shut down his account, which he�d long been using to promote the
militia. The platform conducted a large enforcement action against AP3 in
June, according to the Meta spokesperson, removing 40 pages, 15 groups and
600 accounts that �were mostly focusing on recruitment.� The spokesperson
said Facebook strengthened its policies at the beginning of the year �to
take an even stricter approach to enforcement against this group and other
banned militia organizations.�
Seddon was back on social media, this time on TikTok, after the
assassination attempt on Trump in July. �This was a direct attack on us,�
he said. �We need to become fucking lions.�
AP3�s travails have not been unique. Since the Capitol riot, the militia
movement has grown more fractured and decentralized. This may make it
harder for one leader to spur mass action. It could also make it harder
for one leader to prevent mass action and for law enforcement to track the
groups and to intervene.
The presidential election could propel the militia movement in a darker
direction. Experts worry that a Trump loss could spark violence from those
who feel it�s their only option, especially if he once again refuses to
accept the results. If Trump wins and then fulfills his promise to pardon
Jan. 6 defendants, they fear the most radical wing of his party could take
it as a license for more extreme action.
AP3 may have splintered, but its former members have mostly just moved to
other militias. John Valle, Seddon�s former third in command, sees the
movement�s future as consisting of state and local groups, operating
independently but coordinating on secure messaging apps.
He said that the 286 members of his Washington chapter are now operating
as their own independent group. They didn�t want to get caught up in AP3�s
potential legal problems, but their mission remains the same. As Valle put
it, �We�re just rebranding.�
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-secret-ap3-militia-american-patriots-three-percent
Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia