Tactical Civics claims to have 450 members in Montana and chapters in nine counties. The organization has found harbor with several lawmakers and recruited using a statewide ballot initiative campaign.
SEABORN LARSON EAST HELENA, Mont. — Steve Wagner stepped on the stage and gazed out over the pews. He was at the Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church to baptize a few dozen believers in a new Christian nationalist movement, one that’s crystalized around the idea that citizen-spurred grand juries and county militias are the instruments against omnipresent government corruption."We know we are sitting ducks. This criminal gang in Washington, D.C.
"They'll be writing about us in the history books and children will be reading about us as they live lives as free, sovereign Americans, when we do this, if we do it," he said. Tactical Civics offered them an education — an interpretation of history and constitutional law that no one ever taught for them before. Zuniga has written over a dozen books, including titles for homeschooled children and church leaders, telling Americans they are not only active participants in their lives, but the bosses of the lawmakers, governors and judges.
And when local law enforcement refuses to go along with the grand jury indictments? Well, that’s what the county militia is for. Math, however, was not what brought Abell to the East Helena church that day. The temperature of the political rhetoric had begun to frighten him, as had the kind of activity then-former president Donald Trump whipped up after his 2020 election loss.
"The citizen grand jury idea goes back to the Posse Comitatus, the Freemen, that citizens can assemble grand juries and hand down criminal indictments," said Travis McAdam, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center."It's about going after their perceived enemies, people who have wronged them."
Pinocci did not return a call seeking comment for this story. He generally circulates in the far-right wing of Republican circles, having once held a vigil at the Montana State Capitol for those arrested in the Jan. 6 riots. Wagner, by this time, had suffered some health issues and stepped aside from Tactical Civics, and Crabtree became the organization's statewide coordinator. He didn't mention Tactical Civics during his testimony, instead introducing himself through his own organization, Montana Citizens Council on Judicial Accountability.
Even before Wagner was warning about corruption in"the temples of government," Crabtree felt the system had wronged him. He was convicted of felony theft — at a jury trial in which he represented himself — that emerged out of a dispute about the finances of a girls' softball organization in Great Falls.
In brief, Republicans soon learned judges, discussing legislation in internal emails, had branded the Crabtree bill and a few others as unconstitutional. Those emails were rocket fuel for Republicans, whose policy ambitions have become routinely subject to legal challenges. Crabtree has since completed his sentence for the theft, and didn't flinch when asked in July whether he regretted representing himself in court.
Undeterred, Crabtree moved forward with the next chance to put grand jury reform into place, driving ahead with a statewide ballot initiative campaign to put the question to Montana voters. That campaign gave him the opportunity to take Tactical Civics on the road. Tester ultimately lost to Republican newcomer Tim Sheehy, who was likewise hosted by Patriots Roundtable in August.
"I do think a percentage of registered voters needs to be high enough that it couldn't be you and me, and my buddies could call a grand jury and tip the cart over," he said. Butte-Silver Bow County Sheriff Ed Lester said he is aware of the Tactical Civics meetings in his county and remains troubled by the group's beliefs.
"So now we basically just have vigilante law. That's the road we go down when we get to that point," he told the Montana State News Bureau.
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