{"id":1460259,"date":"2024-03-01T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1460259"},"modified":"2024-03-01T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T01:00:00","slug":"blaze-journalist-arrested-on-4-charges-over-jan-6-presence-at-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/blaze-journalist-arrested-on-4-charges-over-jan-6-presence-at-capitol\/1460259\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaze Journalist Arrested On 4 Charges Over Jan. 6 Presence At Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blaze Journalist Arrested On 4 Charges Over Jan. 6 Presence At Capitol<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Update (1530ET): <\/em><\/strong>Steve Baker of The Blaze<\/em> was arrested on Friday and charged with four misdemeanors<\/strong> related to his Jan. 6 coverage at the US Capital.<\/p>\n

Steve Baker of Blaze Media speaks with radio host Glenn Beck about his Jan. 6 pipe bomb reporting on Feb. 15, 2024. (Blaze Media\/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

He turned himself over to the FBI in Dallas.<\/p>\n

The charges are:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disorderly conduct in a capitol building
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

A Blaze Media journalist whose recent coverage exposed possible perjury by U.S. Capitol Police in a high-profile Jan. 6 trial, says an arrest warrant has been signed and he will surrender to the FBI in Dallas on March 1 to face four Jan. 6 misdemeanor charges.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Michael Baker, <\/strong>63, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was sitting at a table at the Old Hickory restaurant at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on Feb. 23 when he received a call from one of his defense attorneys, Bill Shipley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? When did this happen?<\/strong>\u201d he asked Mr. Shipley. After a brief conversation, Mr. Baker turned to a colleague at the table and said, \u201cWell, it\u2019s happening<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Baker is slated to appear at 10 a.m. on March 1 before a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecutor informed my attorney that I am to arrive at the FBI field office wearing \u2018shorts and sandals,<\/strong>\u2019\u201d Mr. Baker wrote on X. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have to go this route, as we\u2019ve been told that my charges are non-violent misdemeanors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy attorneys have also been assured by the [government] that this will be an \u2018in and out\u2019 affair and that they have \u2018no intention\u2019 of detaining me<\/strong>,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut, rather than issuing a simple order to appear, they seem to feel the need to give me a dose of the personal humiliation treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Baker and the six attorneys who agreed to represent him in the case have said the U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing the prosecution as retribution for his coverage that they say embarrassed the DOJ, FBI, U.S. Capitol Police, and others.<\/p>\n

That view was shared by others on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

\u2018Selective Prosecution\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat the federal government is doing to Steve is unconscionable,\u201d Matthew Peterson, editor-in-chief of Blaze Media, told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans should not have unknown charges hanging over their heads for years on end, and the timeline here suggests that government is now retaliating against him for the stories he\u2019s filed with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Peterson said a simple review of the video shot by Mr. Baker at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 makes it clear that he was there as a journalist. On Jan. 6 Mr. Baker was not employed by Blaze Media yet, but captured video for his news-and-commentary blog, The Pragmatic Constitutionalist.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy have all the other journalists who entered the Capitol not been charged with misdemeanors?<\/strong>\u201d Mr. Peterson asked. \u201cThe government appears to be engaged in selective prosecution.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Baker becomes the latest in a string of right-of-center journalists prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

Stephen Ethan Horn, 25, of Youngsville, North Carolina, was found guilty by a jury on Sept. 18, 2023, on four Jan. 6 counts, including entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.<\/p>\n

Mr. Horn was sentenced on Jan. 10 by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to 12 months of probation and fined $2,000.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors\u2014who asked Judge Kelly to jail Mr. Horn for 10 months\u2014questioned his press credentials and claimed he was no different than hundreds of other \u201crioters\u201d on the grounds that day.<\/p>\n

Jesus Delamora Rivera Jr., 40, of Pensacola, Fla., was sentenced to eight months in jail after being found guilty in a June 2022 bench trial on the same four misdemeanor charges as Mr. Horn.<\/p>\n

Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Frank Edwards fires a munition shell toward protesters on the west side of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Steve Baker\/Special to The Epoch Times)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Rivera was a cinematographer who operated a political blog at the time of the Jan. 6 protests.<\/p>\n

He filmed Jan. 6 action outside and entered into the Capitol to document the protests. He had just been offered a job as a cameraman for a local television news station. His conviction and sentence were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

Other journalists prosecuted by the DOJ include William Pope, editor of Free State Kansas, Sam Montoya and Owen Shroyer of Infowars, and independent opinion journalist Shawn Bradley Witzemann of Tribune Media International.<\/p>\n

Only Mr. Pope\u2019s case is still in the pretrial stage.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement of Mr. Baker\u2019s pending prosecution drew a sharp response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DOJ has no suspects in either the RNC\/DNC pipe bomb nor gallows investigation, but they are targeting an independent journalist who simply documented what he witnessed on Jan. 6,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Committee on House Administration\u2019s Subcommittee on Oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were dozens of journalists at the Capitol that day, so why target [Baker]?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Our Country is Lost\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe regime is arresting Steve for the crime of exposing the lies at the core of the J6 narrative,\u201d Mike Howell of the Oversight Project at Heritage Foundation wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sane world, he\u2019d be winning the Pulitzer Prize and [be] a national hero for telling the truth. Instead, they\u2019re arresting this journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filmmaker and actor Nick Searcy, who produced two Jan. 6 documentaries, likened Mr. Baker\u2019s prosecution to communism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country is lost. We are no better than any communist country at this point,\u201d<\/strong> Mr. Searcy wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Just before a January press conference held in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Mr. Baker said he believes the prosecution is payback for his work as a journalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter not having indicted me for three years, it is clear that any move to do so now will be in retaliation for my reporting,\u201d Mr. Baker said in a statement. \u201cI will not be intimidated. I will continue to report the findings of my investigation into the evidence being made available to me to review,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In October 2023 Mr. Baker published an investigation at Blaze Media alleging<\/a> that two Capitol Police officials gave false testimony in the 2002 trial of Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III and four other men.<\/p>\n

Paramedics rush a mortally wounded Ashli Babbitt to the rescue squad just after 3 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021. (Steve Baker\/Special to The Epoch Times)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

More recently, Mr. Baker reported that a plainclothes Capitol Police officer, not a passerby, discovered the pipe bomb<\/a> at the Democratic National Committee offices on Jan. 6. He also wrote that a Capitol Police security camera was turned away from the DNC in the middle of police response to the bomb.<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times confirmed Mr. Baker\u2019s reports and disclosed that a second<\/a> and third<\/a> USCP security camera was deliberately panned away from the scene during bomb-squad operations.<\/p>\n

Mr. Baker was first threatened with prosecution in the fall of 2021 after he voluntarily met with two FBI special agents in North Carolina.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was later told that the DOJ was considering an interstate racketeering charge because he received money to license his Jan. 6 video to HBO, The New York Times, and other media outlets.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tell Him to Be Careful\u2019<\/h2>\n

There was no update after that until March 2023, when Mr. Baker was warned by a well-connected journalist that his online commentaries about the Oath Keepers case, Capitol Police, and other issues were chafing important people<\/a> at the DOJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call from another journalist who has a friendly source inside the Department of Justice there in D.C.,\u201d Baker told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe called me up and said\u2014this is a paraphrase, but he said\u2014\u2018Your friend in Raleigh, tell him to be careful. He has awakened a couple of people\u2019s attention to his work, and they\u2019re not happy about it at all.\u2019<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0He had a front-row view of some intense scenes, including the initial bombardment of munitions aimed by police at the huge crowd on the Capitol\u2019s west front.<\/p>\n

His video work appeared in Jan. 6 films by HBO, The New York Times, and The Epoch Times.<\/a> It has been syndicated worldwide on Storyful.<\/p>\n

Mr. Baker filmed the debut of a Metropolitan Police Department \u201chard squad\u201d and the violence that broke out as the riot-gear-clad officers rolled and rumbled through the dense crowd just after 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

In August 2023, Mr. Baker received a subpoena for his Jan. 6 video, which he said was ironic since he offered the footage to the FBI in 2021. He traveled to Washington on the subpoena deadline date to turn in the video. But no one at the DOJ knew anything about it, he said at the time.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Mr. Baker was warned by federal authorities to expect imminent charges. His surrender to the FBI, initially set before Christmas, was delayed. There was no further word until January, prompting the Dallas press conference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 03\/01\/2024 – 15:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bRead More<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blaze Journalist Arrested On 4 Charges Over Jan. 6 Presence At Capitol Update (1530ET): Steve Baker of The Blaze was arrested on Friday and charged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}