Fed-up North Dakotans, led by a group of women calling themselves the BadAss Grandmas, voted to amend the constitution and establish a state Ethics Commission six years ago. Their goal was to investigate and stop unethical conduct by public officials. 

But the watchdog agency has achieved less than the advocates had hoped, undermined in large part by the legislature the commission is charged with overseeing, an investigation by the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica has found. 

The commission has not substantiated any of the 81 complaints it has received. It has dismissed 47, most because it lacked the authority to investigate them. Thirty complaints are pending, some for more than a year. Numerous tips don’t get investigated because the agency can’t proceed without a formal complaint, and complainants have said they fear retaliation if they file one, the commission’s executive director said. 

“I certainly was hoping for something more rapid,” said Carol Sawicki, one of the North Dakota residents who sponsored the ballot initiative that created the commission.

John Williams, a wilderness survival trainer, spent two years undercover moving up through the ranks of two militias, the Oath Keepers and American Patriots Three Percent, gathering a vast trove of information about one of the most dangerous movements in America.

He didn’t inform authorities and said nothing to his family and friends.

The one person he told was ProPublica reporter Joshua Kaplan.

He feared someone was in danger and tried to warn them, but it backfired. Williams was sure at least one person knew he was a double agent, so he fled and sent ProPublica a thumb drive with more than 100 gigabytes of documents, audio, chat logs and video. 

This is what we found.