evidence: The public’s impression of American militias is dominated by Jan. 6, 2021. Groups such as the Proud Boys had plotted to prevent the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. They formed the vanguard of the mob that stormed the Capitol that day, according to the Department of Justice. Media coverage since has centered on the prosecutions of participants, with hundreds of rioters sent to prison. [...] The materials also shed light on what former national security officials say is the most urgent question regarding militias: Will Jan. 6 prove the high water mark of the movement’s violence or merely a prelude to something more catastrophic? AP3 leaders have sometimes characterized the storming of the Capitol as a botched job, a failure of ill-formed plans that didn’t go far enough. "The Jan 6 event made the movement look weak and uncommitted," one wrote a year and a half after the riot in a secret channel. "Had the house been taken for real and held we would all be in a different world." [...] By August 2021, Seddon’s lieutenants noticed that the backlash to the Capitol riot was starting to dissipate. A new type of member was signing up. "J6 made me want to join," a recruit wrote that month in a Telegram channel. He hadn’t been part of a militia before, he explained, but seeing how "true Patriots" were being treated, "it was time to actually do something."