Jan. 6's Tangled Web Of Extremism

Mike Jensen keeps a database of bad guys. As a senior researcher at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), part of Jensen’s job is to identify violent events that occur in the U.S. and investigate whether the people involved have any ties to extremism. If they do, he adds them to his database. 

In what he calls a “very active” year, Jensen says he might end up adding 300 individuals to the database. But after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Jensen’s database grew dramatically. 

“We have three times that on one day that potentially qualify,” Jensen said.

After the attack on the Capitol, Jensen started putting together a social network consisting of individuals who had been charged in relation to Jan. 6 and had existing ties to extremist organizations. He found many of the defendants had connections to extremist groups prior to Jan. 6, and that these groups were connected to one another. Relationships between defendants and a shared belief in the Big Lie forged new connections between these disparate groups. It’s not that your local Proud Boys chapter is regularly planning a bowling night with the neighborhood sovereign citizens collective. But when a lie about a stolen election aligns with their respective ideologies, they’ll be sure to show up in Washington, D.C., to riot together.