A group of Chicago police officers admitted they were in contact with the Oath Keepers – and many acknowledged they even joined what would become a nationally notorious, anti-government group.

But the cops said they did little or nothing with the Oath Keepers and thought they were merely “supporters of the Constitution” in the years before the group played a key role in the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Based largely on their interviews with eight officers, Chicago Police Department officials decided a month ago to clear all of the cops of accusations they were members of the far-right group, according to documents released Friday from a six-month investigation by the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.

Hours before posting those files online, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling defended the decision not to discipline any of the members of his force who faced scrutiny because they appeared on the leaked membership list of the Oath Keepers.

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Chicago Police Department tolerates officers with extremist ties

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The CPD had revealed in a statement Thursday that charges against all of the officers were deemed to be “not sustained,” although the newly released records show that some of them were recruited to the Oath Keepers from within the department and paid to become members.

The report underscores previous criticism that the police department has shown leniency toward officers investigated for their alleged links to extremist groups, including the Proud Boys and Three Percenters.

In October, Snelling had promised the City Council that the CPD would conduct “thorough investigations” and show no tolerance for cops with extremist connections.

But on Friday, at an unrelated news conference alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson, Snelling said he felt strongly that there was no cause for action against the cops.

“I can tell you that we reached out to everybody,” Snelling said. “Our internal affairs division has reached out to everyone to gather information to determine if these officers were actually proven to be members of hate groups.”

Mayor Johnson continues to back Snelling

Johnson was elected last year after a campaign in which he promised to rid the police department of any members of the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys, who also were involved in the 2021 Capitol riot.

He reiterated that pledge last year, after the “Extremism in the Ranks” series by the Sun-Times, WBEZ and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project detailed serious misconduct complaints – including racism and excessive force charges from civilians and fellow cops – against some of the Chicago cops on the Oath Keepers member rolls.

But on Friday, Johnson said it appeared the department had no other option but to close the investigation.

“If there is no evidence that corroborates or substantiates someone’s involvement as a member of one of these groups, there are very few courses of action that can be taken,” the mayor said.

Johnson also backed Snelling, his pick as superintendent, as being “very much committed and capable of leading that department,” and he said he trusted Snelling to give proper “attention to individuals who are bad actors or who have displayed reprehensible behavior.”

Johnson said he did not think his position on extremism and the CPD had shifted after a reporter noted his campaign pledge on the issue.

“If there’s evidence that someone is confirmed to be a part of a hate group, absolutely I still stand by my position,” Johnson said.

Investigators find cops had ‘limited to no interaction with the Oath Keepers’

The new documents, however, show that most of the accused officers told the department in February of their ties to the Oath Keepers. In their report closing the investigation, issued on April 4, internal investigators wrote that “at some point each of them provided their information in order to gain more information or join a group called the Oath Keepers.”

One of the cops told investigators he recalled being recruited to the Oath Keepers during in-service training for the NATO summit held in Chicago in 2012, and that “several officers he could not remember were passing the Oath Keepers pamphlet around.”

Another officer who joined the group over a decade ago said he wasn’t sure if he was “considered a member for life.”

But Internal Affairs investigators said most of the accused officers viewed the Oath Keepers as “a Pro Second Amendment group, and supporters of the Constitution.”

And the investigators added, “Most of the accused officers had very limited to no interaction with the Oath Keepers after the initial signup.” All of them said they had not attended any Oath Keepers events.

The eight active-duty officers who were the subjects of the recently concluded investigation were: Sgt. Michael Nowacki, Detective Anthony Keany and Officers Alberto Retamozo, Matthew Bracken, Bienvenido Acevedo, Dennis Mack, Alexander Kim and John Nicezyporuk.

A ninth officer who remains on the force, Phillip Singto, was previously investigated and was cleared of wrongdoing, despite also admitting that he had signed up for the Oath Keepers at one time. Records show the CPD concluded being in extremist organizations “in itself is not a rule violation.”

That prior investigation also targeted Officer Christopher Hoffman, a former member of the scandal-plagued Special Operations Section who retired before he could be interviewed.

During the recent probe, Keany and Kim both told investigators they had been recruited by Hoffman, who Kim described as “one of the main proponents of the Oath Keepers Organization.”

Kim also noted that he met with other Chicago cops linked to the group – “but never for the purposes of talking about the Oath Keepers.”

Officers appeared at their Internal Affairs interviews three months ago with a lawyer from their union, the Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP attorney, Tim Grace, stated before the interviews that cops have “rights to join an organization … if it did not interfere with their actions as Police Officers.”

Grace also told investigators that “there were 1st Amendment implications here.”

But City Hall’s independent inspector general, Deborah Witzburg, has argued that membership in the Oath Keepers and similar groups violates existing, broad rules against discrediting the department and undermining its goals.

Snelling said Friday he welcomed a review of the investigation by Witzburg. She has blasted the department’s handling of other cases involving extremist influence among the CPD’s ranks, and Witzburg told WBEZ on Thursday that her office could call on the department to reopen the investigation if she finds problems with how it was conducted.

Dozens of people associated with the Oath Keepers have been charged in connection with the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, with the group’s founder sentenced to 18 years in prison on sedition charges. Months after the 2021 insurrection in Washington, a list of about 38,000 people from across the country who joined the Oath Keepers emerged publicly.

The names of 27 current and former Chicago cops were among them – with many of them highlighting their ties to the department, paying membership dues by credit card, providing detailed personal contact information and even promising to recruit at CPD roll-call meetings before cops begin their shifts on patrol, according to the leaked data.

But on Friday, Snelling said it was “misleading to tie this to January 6” and said erroneously that the CPD’s internal investigation into the matter dates to before the 2021 riot.

In fact, department records show an internal investigation was opened later in 2021, after National Public Radio reported that officers in Chicago and other cities appeared on the Oath Keepers membership list.

That investigation was closed in 2022, according to department records, even after the Anti-Defamation League provided a top official with names of officers that were on the list.

The just-closed internal affairs probe was opened last year, when WBEZ and the Sun-Times inquired about the ADL’s letter to the top official.

The same Internal Affairs supervisor, Sgt. John Bartuch, oversaw both investigations.

Investigation draws critics’ ire

A leading civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, on Friday strongly criticized the Chicago Police Department’s handling of the issue.

“Every time Chicagoans demand police accountability, nothing happens,” said Jeff Tischauser, a Chicago-based senior researcher with the SPLC. “It is utterly disappointing that Supt. Snelling and the Chicago Police Department Bureau of Internal Affairs closed these cases and did not sustain any allegations.”

Tischauser said cops who associate with extremism bring shame and distrust upon all officers, including the majority of the rank-and-file cops who are “trying to do good” and care deeply about the city.

“These officers with these ties to hate and extremist groups tarnish the reputation of CPD,” he said. “How can we trust any Chicago police officer when their leaders allow officers with ties to hate and extremist groups to go unpunished?”

The “Extremism in the Ranks” investigation also found other law enforcement agencies in Illinois have shied away from disciplining officers whose names appeared on the Oath Keepers list, including an Illinois State Police trooper and a member of campus police force at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team. Tom Schuba is a criminal justice editor for the Sun-Times.