START releases interactive data map highlighting connections between January 6th defendants, extremist groups

While cases against participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection continue, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) waded into the matter last week with the launch of a new data map showcasing connections between defendants and extremist groups.

As created by the university-based center’s Radicalization and Deradicalization team, this map is fully interactive and allows users to engage and unravel more than 900 links between those criminally charged for participating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and contemporary extremist groups and movements. It highlights the relationships to such groups as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and the QAnon conspiracy, painting the picture of the ideologies and networks that spurred the attack.

In addition to the map, researchers created interactive infographics with key characteristics of the defendant population – a number that has bloomed to include more than 300 people criminally charged for participation in the attack. To be included in the map itself, a defendant has to have shown a link to an extremist group or movement prior to Jan. 6, 2021, as documented in court records, news articles, or other open sources.

Therefore, documentation includes those who were or are formal members of an extremist group, self-identified members of extremist movements without formal membership processes, or publicly praised extremist groups or movements before the attack. Links were then made based on individuals’ communications with one another, either online or in person, prior to Jan. 6, 2021.

Only those charged at the federal, state, or local level for participation in the attack on the Capitol were included.