South Dakota lawmaker's name leaked as member of anti-government militia

A South Dakota lawmaker's name was listed among the names listed in the data dump, revealing members of the right-wing anti-government militia, the Oath Keepers.

Thus far, law enforcement members in Oregon, Hudson County, the NYPD, across New Jersey, a candidate for local office, a Fox News commentator, police an official in Utah, and the names of 38,000 more have been revealed, as a result of the release of the names of members in the militia.

Phil Jensen's name was among those leaked, adding to his long history of controversy, reported Rolling Stone. However, the former state senator's career is mired by controversy. In 2014, Jensen sponsored SB 128, which would have allowed any business to turn away LGBTQ customers. It failed, and even other republicans called the measure "a mean, nasty, hateful, vindictive bill."

As Rolling Stone pointed out, Jensen justified the bill to the Rapid City Journal, by comparing LGBTQ people to members of the KKK.

"If someone was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and they were running a little bakery for instance," he said, "the majority of us would find it detestable that they refuse to serve Blacks, and guess what? In a matter of weeks or so that business would shut down because no one is going to patronize them."

Members of the militia are asked to swear to a 10-point oath saying that they will fight back against "government tyranny," an odd oath for someone being paid by the government he purports to oppose.

The data dump of the names came from a transparency group, Distributed Denial of Secrets, which revealed names, emails and chat logs of Oath Keepers.

"In short, everything was there that you'd expect," said Emma Best, a co-founder of DDoSecrets. "The pieces all fit together, and there was far too much data that was far too detailed for it to have been faked."

While most Oath Keepers used an email from a private account, Jensen used his official state legislative email address, which displays his name, Senator Phil Jensen.

Wendy Rogers, another far-right Arizona lawmaker, is a state senator who was exposed. But she hasn't hidden her membership to the anti-government group.

Jeff Serdy, another Arizona government official, a supervisor for Pinal County, was also named in the data. He dodged questions about the group, saying that technically everyone who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution is an "Oath Keeper." However, the militia group frequently opposes the federal government. Serdy now distances himself from the group because he said the founder has changed the "original intent" of the group.

Read the rest of the details at Rolling Stone.