Riverside County sheriff acknowledges he was dues-paying member of Oath Keepers – Press Enterprise

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco was a 2014 Duty Member of the Oath Keepers, an affiliation for which he made no apologies despite the group’s reputation as a militia of anti-government extremists.

Members of the Oath Keepers are said to have stood behind the storming of the Capitol during the Stop the Steal rally in January. Bianco, however, defended the group as a constitutional and freedom-friendly organization that has been misrepresented by the FBI and the mainstream media.

Bianco’s one-time membership – along with membership of around 40,000 current and former law enforcement and military personnel across the country – was exposed after hackers broke through the Oath Keepers website and digested its data.

The information was made available to the media by Distributed Denial of Secrets, also known as DDoSecrets, a subversive whistleblower group founded in 2018 and can be distributed anonymously. The group has been described as an offshoot of Wikileaks.

Bianco’s engagement was first revealed on Monday in a tweet from JJ MacNab, an expert on extremist organizations at George Washington University.

Political lightning rod

Bianco, who was elected Sheriff of Riverside County in 2018, has received heavy criticism from the left and high praise from his conservative supporters for his garish positions. He has been an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccine, mask and store restrictions since the pandemic forced nationwide store closings in March 2020.

Last month, he said he would not require sheriff’s department employees or applicants to be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a state health ordinance mandating vaccinations or regular coronavirus tests for those who work in prisons.

In a telephone interview with the Southern California News Group, Bianco said he forgot his affiliation with Oath Keepers until his website privacy breach and advertisements for his involvement with the organization rocked his memory.

“I found an email from 2014 that I joined for a year. I don’t even remember it. It was an email that said, ‘Thanks for joining.’ I paid for an annual membership, ”he said in an interview.

Bianco believes the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association brought him to the attention of Oath Keepers, another organization he was a part of at the time and which he signed as a member.

‘Don’t be ashamed of it’

“I’m not ashamed of what I did in 2014,” said Bianco, adding that it had nothing to do with the January 6th breach of the US Capitol. “I spoke out loudly against what happened there. What they did – the few who entered the building – was completely wrong and against the law and they should be held accountable for it. “

He said the misguided and illegal actions of several individual members of several Oath Keepers do not justify the mainstream media and the FBI portraying the entire group as an “anti-government militia.” He said members of far-left militant organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter had committed acts of violence and vandalism, with far less attention from the media and the FBI.

“Why wasn’t that done with Antifa and Black Lives Matter?” said Bianco. “I lost trust in the FBI a long time ago. The line workers are top notch. Your administration has nothing to do with wearing a badge. You moved away from unbiased law enforcement a long time ago. “

“Of monumental importance”

Brian Levin, professor of criminal justice and director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, described Bianco’s affiliation with Oath Keepers as “monumental importance”.

“This is the senior law enforcement executive among the largest agencies associated with this militant insurgent group,” Levin said.

As for Bianco’s comments on Antifa and Black Lives Matter, Levin said that while the violent hard left has become increasingly active in recent years, the overwhelming majority of extremist conspiracies and murders in the United States over the past decade have been from far-right sides came, anti-government extremists.

Commenting on Bianco’s comment on the FBI, he said, “Someone who heads a department that oversees the nation’s tenth largest district but hasn’t reported hate crimes in 2020, the nation’s worst year since 2001, might do better with the efficiency rating his own agency instead of firing imaginary barbs at my colleagues in the office. “

Anaheim sergeant listed

Another name that appears on the Oath Keepers leaked membership roster is that of Anaheim Police Sgt. Michael Lynch, a nearly 30-year veteran of the department. Lynch’s LinkedIn profile states that he is the supervisor in the agency’s investigative department.

“I have experience in the enforcement of vices and narcotics and was a superior in the community police, patrol and SWAT,” it says in his profile. “From 1992 to 2006 I had duties in the patrol, in the field training officer, in the gang command, in the criminal police and in the tourist-oriented police. In 2006 I was promoted to sergeant. “

Lynch declined to comment on Wednesday whether he is still affiliated with the Oath Keepers. However, he told USA Today last week that he joined the Oath Keepers many years ago but did not renew his membership when he learned more about the group.

“I didn’t notice anything,” he said in an interview with the newspaper. “There wasn’t a local branch or anything like that, so when it came time to do an extension, I figured I wouldn’t send another $ 40.”

An internal affairs investigation has been launched to investigate the membership of Lynchs Oath Keepers, said Sgt. Shane Carringer, an Anaheim Police Department spokesman.

“We have guidelines that deal with conduct and conduct outside of the service, but at the same time officials have the same constitutional rights as any citizen,” he said on Wednesday. “All we have right now are allegations of membership in the Oath Keepers. Information about the purpose from then (when Lynch joined) to today is conflicting.

Oath Keepers Arrested During Siege

In the nine months since the siege of the U.S. Capitol, more than 600 people have been arrested nationwide for offenses related to the violation, including at least 185 people charged with assault or obstruction of prosecution. About 20 people identified as members of Oath Keepers were involved.

Last month, Oath Keepers member Jason Dolan, 45, of Wellington, Fla., Pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of an officer for his role in the violation in one case. This makes him the third Oath Keeper to have pleaded guilty to prosecution.

Dolan has conspired with other members to bring firearms to the event, according to the FBI, including an M4 rifle that Donland and at least one of his co-conspirators dropped in at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

Bianco said that for him the Oath Keepers are a group that supports and stands the oath he has taken as a peace officer and sheriff – to defend the constitutions of the United States and California and protect himself from all enemies at home and abroad .

“If you support the United States Constitution in today’s politically toxic environment, you are angry – you are being branded an evil right-wing conspirator,” he said.

Oath Keepers officials did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.

Staff authors Tony Saavedra and Nikie Johnson contributed to this report.