33
so far the only version of events you’ve
heard is the government’s,” Robin says.
Those in Arab who don’t support
James have mainly stayed quiet. “Lit-
tle towns ain’t no joke,” one person who
lives near James tells TIME. “I’d really
rather my house not get burned down,
ya feel me?” Another neighbor who
spoke to local media the day of James’
arrest was attacked on social media as a
“rat-faced snitch.”
That hasn’t stopped everyone from
speaking out. “I wish he had stayed home
with his family,” wrote one Arab resident
on the local paper’s Facebook page. “He
should have thought about them when he
decided to be a domestic terrorist,” an-
other community member retorted.
To Patrick Tays, a 73-year-old dis-
abled Navy veteran who lives in Arab,
James and his allies are “traitorous scum-
bags.” “Washington would have hung
them,” he says. “Lincoln would have shot
them. Teddy Roo se velt would have them
all in prison.”
Only nOw are federal authorities for-
mally drawing up a strategy to handle
the problem of military veterans’ joining
extremist groups. The Biden Administra-
tion’s strategy to combat domestic ter-
rorism includes plans to prevent veter-
ans from being recruited by extremists.
Currently, there are no efforts that focus
on veterans once they have left service,
despite evidence that they are increas-
ingly the targets of online misinformation
and extremist recruitment.
Security analysts, veterans’ groups
and experts say it will be vital to combat
both the isolation and the fear mongering
that lead former service members to
think of their fellow Americans as the
enemy or, worse, take the law into their
own hands. “It’s important not to fixate
too much on the Oath Keepers as an or-
ganization but to think of them as a con-
crete example of a broader phenome-
non in America,” says Sam Jackson, a
homeland- security expert at the Uni-
versity of Albany who wrote a book on
the group. The alleged radicalization
of James, the growth of local chapters
and the national organization should
be “seen as a Russian nesting doll” that
shows a much larger movement, he says,
“of people who view America as being
hijacked by internal and external ene-
mies.” But little is likely to change unless
more Americans come to agree on what
it means to be an extremist and what it
means to be a patriot.
After a month in jail, James was
granted bond under the condition that he
get mental- health treatment, surrender
his passport and agree not to commu-
nicate with other members of the Oath
Keepers. The evening James returned to
Arab, Schultz, the jewelry-store owner,
drove to the family’s house with steaks
to welcome him back. “He’s a good man,”
Schultz says. “It’s just so scary. My daddy
says they’re going to make an example
out of him.”
James has been living under house
arrest, allowed to leave only for mental-
health appointments. In May, during
what would be a busy season for his busi-
ness, his company truck sat idle in the
backyard.
At least three co-defendants in the
Oath Keeper case have pleaded guilty
to charges of conspiracy and obstruct-
ing Congress, and are now cooperating
with the government. These witnesses’
testimony could have a major impact on
James’ case.
Over the July 4 weekend, Audrey
pored over their plea deals with a high-
lighter to understand what it might
mean for her husband. Sounding in-
credulous, she told her TikTok follow-
ers that she was “blown away at the con-
stitutional rights they’re signing away.”
Even though his fellow Oath Keep-
ers had pleaded guilty, she maintained
James had done nothing wrong on
Jan. 6. His day in court has yet to be set.
—With reporting by simmone shah/
new york and Chris wilson •
^
Left: one of dozens of churches in
Arab; right: the Arab High School
football stadium
WHITTEN SABBATINI FOR TIME (4)
