De Blasio vows ‘full investigation’ after data leak appears to link two NYPD officers to the Oath Keepers

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) vowed a “full investigation” on Thursday after a data leak appeared to link at least two active New York Police Department officers to the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers.

In a news conference, de Blasio said a probe was going to happen “right away” to determine if any officer was involved in the group and whether that would disqualify them from serving.

“There will be a full investigation to find out exactly if any officer was involved? How were they involved? What did they do? What did they say? If it’s the kind of thing that would disqualify them from serving,” de Blasio said.

“So, that investigation is going to happen right away and we’re going to definitely keep you posted on what comes from that,” he continued.

An NYPD spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that “the incident is under internal review.”

The group Distributed Denial of Secrets has published records claiming to be emails and membership data from the Oath Keepers.

The Gothamist/WNYC first reported that several New York law enforcement officers and public officials had ties to the Oath Keepers, based on the data.

Among the names was an NYPD sergeant in the agency’s Firearms and Tactics Session and a Staten Island officer who was in the department’s unit that had been deployed to control protests. 

Eighteen people affiliated with the Oath Keepers have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Earlier this month, alleged Oath Keeper Jason Dolan pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding in connection with the case.

During the news conference on Thursday, de Blasio said it was “very troubling” that anyone would want to be part of the group. However, he cautioned against a deeper investigation into all NYPD officers and extremist groups. 

“The notion of looking at an organization with 35,000 uniform officers and 15,000, I think, plus civilians and sort of a broad-gauge investigation of everyone? Something I hear that immediately is troubling to me,” de Blasio said.