Angry After Jan. 6, He Became a 'Freelance Vigilante'

In the spring of 2023, reporter Joshua Kaplan received a package in the mail with no return address, the contents of which included a flash drive with tens of thousands of files. What Kaplan found in those files he now details for ProPublica, laying out the "remarkable odyssey" of a man who, infuriated by the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol, spent two years undercover in order to inject himself into the top ranks of two of America's most well-known anti-government militias: the Oath Keepers and AP3. John Williams (his new legal name) "penetrated a new generation of paramilitary leaders, which included doctors, career cops, and government attorneys," writes Kaplan, noting that Williams' mole operation became so complex that he was forced to keep a journal so he could keep track of all his lies.

Williams was so successful that he even managed to get himself installed as the leader of AP3's Utah chapter. The entire time he was immersed in this subterfuge, Williams didn't tell anyone what he was doing—not his family or friends, and not the police or FBI, instead opting to became a "freelance vigilante" of sorts. "He only told me," Williams writes. So why go public now? First off, he'd anonymously warned a journalist who seemed to be in the crosshairs of an irate AP3 member, and it seemed like his cover would be blown. Williams, who says he has even more files to release, also explains that he now wants to sow distrust and paranoia within the groups he infiltrated. "Every time militia members make a phone call, attend a meeting, or go to a gun range together, he wants them 'to be thinking, in the back of their heads, "This guy will betray me,"' Kaplan writes. Read his piece in full here. (More militia stories.)