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Blaze Writer Steve Baker Charged With Four Misdemeanors Related to January 6

Blaze Writer Steve Baker Charged With Four Misdemeanors Related to January 6

“Baker added that when he asked his other attorney, William Shipley, why the federal government is treating him like this, Shipley replied, ‘You know why. You’ve been poking them in the eye for three years.'”
Posted by Friday, March 1, 2024 at 03:00pm
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Blaze investigative reporter Steve Baker faces four misdemeanors related to the Capitol Hill riot on January 6.

  • Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority
  • Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds
  • Disorderly conduct in a capitol building
  • Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building

Notice that the wording does not mention reporting, journalism, or media. This is important.

Baker learned about the charges this week when the FBI told him to surrender on Friday morning. But no one told him the actual charges until he appeared in court. His lawyer also implied the treatment is because of his coverage over the past three years:

Baker’s Dallas attorney, James Lee Bright, added to Blaze News that withholding the nature of the charges against his client was a “really unusual” move.

Bright told Blaze News that he’s “disturbed” about what’s happening with his client, especially given that Baker has been “in full compliance” all this time. Bright also said the federal government “three-plus years later going after people who were legitimate functioning journalists that day” appears designed to have an “absolute chilling effect.”

Baker added that when he asked his other attorney, William Shipley, why the federal government is treating him like this, Shipley replied, “You know why. You’ve been poking them in the eye for three years.”

The agency told him to show up in “shorts and sandals,” but he appeared in a suit and tie.

Blaze Media editor-in-chief Matthew Peterson said:

“He’s had unknown charges hanging over his head for years, but after we started working with him the government sprang back into action. There is no need to put him in a jumpsuit or handcuffs except as a humiliation ritual or a show, which seems to be exactly what they are planning on doing on Friday,” Peterson said.

“We will be showing the world footage from January 6 that shows Steve was clearly present that day as an independent journalist. Government retaliation such as this against journalists contradicts the very idea of a free press, the purpose of our form of government, and what once was the American way of life,” Peterson added.

Baker on January 6, Meeting With FBI

Baker documented January 6 in a post on October 2. He worked as an investigative journalist but not with the Blaze on January 6.

Baker told readers the government had been investigating him for two years. The second sentence is the shocker:

Last Wednesday morning, my attorney spoke with FBI Special Agent Craig Noyes, one of the lead investigators in my case. He confirmed that the Department of Justice is continuing its probe into my journalistic activities on January 6, 2021.

“Like many other reporters and photojournalists — both independents and those working directly for established media companies — I followed the story that day where it went,” continued Baker. “And it happened to be inside the Capitol Building. Depending on who is doing the counting, between 100 and 200 journalists were either already inside the Capitol, covering the event from restricted grounds, or followed the crowd inside.”

It surprised Baker to find that the left-wing group Sedition Hunters, which has documented the journalists/reporters on January 6, didn’t list him. he contacted the group, but the people ignored him and blocked him on social media.

Baker never hid what he saw or did on January 6. He wrote a blog post, gave interviews, and uploaded commentary on YouTube.

The FBI contacted him on June 22, 2021. Thank goodness Baker brought his attorney to a voluntary meeting in August 2021.

The agents acknowledged Baker’s profession as a member of the press, stating that they needed “special permission” to conduct the meeting. Important fact is highlighted:

According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a federal investigative agency must first secure “authorization by a United States Attorney or Assistant Attorney General” before conducting an interview with a member of the media.

My lawyer and the U.S. attorney’s office then negotiated a proffer agreement for my voluntary interview, which said in effect that nothing I said in the interview could be used against me should I be charged with a crime unless I perjured myself. Keep that in mind.

The agents even thanked Baker “for not doing violence against law enforcement on January 6.”

However, the first threat included charges of racketeering and property damage:

“Well, that’s the weird part,” my attorney continued. “According to the criminal statutes she sent — 18 USC 1952 (a)(1)-(2) and 40 USC 5104 (e)(2)(d) and (g) — you’re being charged with interstate racketeering and property damage.”

“What?!”

To the first charge, the only thing we could surmise is that during the FBI interview, I had been asked how much money I had made from the licensing of my January 6 videos. Several of my video clips had been used in January 6 documentaries produced by HBO and the New York Times, as well as by news services all over the world.

Was the federal government really trying to claim that I had traveled from Raleigh, N.C., to Washington, D.C., with the foreknowledge of a criminal event and conspired with others to profit from it?

All I could do was laugh.

As to the second charge, I’d informed the agents during the interview that at one point while inside the Capitol, I stood on a bench to get above the crowd to get a better camera angle on the crowd’s activities. Agent Noyes asked, “You stood on a bench?” He then feverishly wrote something on his notepad.

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Baker tweeted on Thursday:

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Comments

OldProf2 | March 1, 2024 at 3:08 pm

Why would two big, burly FBI agents need to put this milquetoast journalist, who voluntarily came in, in handcuffs?

Obviously, just for a perp walk because he doesn’t stick to the Democrat narrative. The unwritten caption says “Be a loyal Democrat, or this may happen to you!”

    diver64 in reply to OldProf2. | March 1, 2024 at 4:57 pm

    That one agent should be the one in handcuffs for wearing that blue suit. The other looks like he is at a casual dinner party with his shirt unbuttoned and no tie. What ever happened to professionals wearing black suits and ties doing this job? FBI now hiring thugs to carry out the dirty work dressing like they are too cool for school.

    Paul in reply to OldProf2. | March 1, 2024 at 7:25 pm

    REEEE REEEEE REEEEEE

    Trump is a fascist!!!!

    wendybar in reply to OldProf2. | March 2, 2024 at 4:32 am

    To prove how dumb the Progressives really are, They think this will change peoples minds, when all it does is prove who the authoritarians REALLY are.

Ironclaw | March 1, 2024 at 3:11 pm

This is the exact sort of weaponization of the justice system that I would expect that of a bunch of totalitarian fascists like the Biden Administration

Capitalist-Dad | March 1, 2024 at 3:14 pm

The Blue Cheka (fka FBI) loves to throw its treacherous weight around when continuing its quest to come out at the peak of the Secret Police hierarchy in the Democrat Party’s wished-for leftist despotism.

oldschooltwentysix | March 1, 2024 at 3:20 pm

If they keep saving democracy and rule of law, soon there will be none of either, not even for them.

    Ghostrider in reply to oldschooltwentysix. | March 2, 2024 at 5:11 am

    Why did the FBI charge Baker for reporting and videotaping J6? Because they can. And, they did so to a nondescript small fish because they are sending a message to bigger conservative reporters.

    My sense is the FBI’s next target is Tucker Carlson. One can only imagine what his charging statement will read like for the crime of going to Russia, taping an interview with Putin and then profiting from it.

JRaeL | March 1, 2024 at 3:25 pm

Two words of advice from a non lawyer.

“Never cooperate.”

Call me jaded but it is my firm belief that interviews/interrogation with members of an authority that has the ways and means to deprive you of liberty, money, or even life should always be viewed as being hostile to your best interests. And in this instance hostile to the best interests of a free press at large.

mailman | March 1, 2024 at 3:38 pm

He’ll be fine. The main stream media will come to his aid by highlighting his case every hour on the hour until the FBI releases him and apologises for their error.

Any second now.

    diver64 in reply to mailman. | March 1, 2024 at 4:58 pm

    Seems only Brit Hume has the stones to speak out about this. The rest of the sycophants in the Biden Media are all too happy to cheer on the senile fascist in the WH

Andy | March 1, 2024 at 3:48 pm

The fact that the GOP is not gutting the FBI with the same fervor as the left is gutting local law enforcement is disturbing.

They need be gutted to the bone.

    Paddy M in reply to Andy. | March 1, 2024 at 4:33 pm

    They’re doing the opposite like funding a brand new Cheka HQ.

    thalesofmiletus in reply to Andy. | March 1, 2024 at 4:41 pm

    The FBI needs to be completely dismantled. Simply changing heads will accomplish nothing.

    sfharding in reply to Andy. | March 1, 2024 at 7:00 pm

    The FBI needs to be returned to its most important and original function, that of a national forensics and investigative lab, offering support to law enforcement at all levels, but not actually engaged in “law enforcement” itself. No guns. No police authority. Period.

    Danny in reply to Andy. | March 2, 2024 at 3:13 pm

    And how the hell would the GOP gut the FBI without the presidency, or the senate, and without a comfortable margin in the house?

      Andy in reply to Danny. | March 2, 2024 at 3:40 pm

      Same way they would with a majority.

      BY HAVING A BACKBONE, BALLS, OR A PULSE

      perhaps the lack of those three things is why they don’t have comfortable majorities.

        Danny in reply to Andy. | March 2, 2024 at 10:55 pm

        Again Democrats have

        1. The Presidency

        2. The Senate

        3. Are barely in minority in the house (and our speaker has almost no power over Republican congressmen many from moderate districts who are risk averse because of the nature of their districts).

        This isn’t about backbone, the GOP has NO power to do what you are suggesting, and your pretending they do…..congratulations you are part of Biden’s operation demoralize.

      Paddy M in reply to Danny. | March 2, 2024 at 7:22 pm

      Like the GOPe would do it if they had all 3. And if they did, you’d whine like a little girl.

        Danny in reply to Paddy M. | March 2, 2024 at 10:56 pm

        1. Your a jackass I have suggested dismantling the FBI here routinely since I started posting

        2. Did I mention your a lair

        3. Jackass liar go straight to hell.

        Danny in reply to Paddy M. | March 2, 2024 at 10:57 pm

        By the way to refute you, if you think it is lost shut up about politics, stop looking at news, stop reading internet sources, pick up anything written by Cicero, or by Saint Augustine, or Shakespeare or any other greats and do something productive you piece of excrement, but stop spamming that all is lost it isn’t.

          henrybowman in reply to Danny. | March 3, 2024 at 12:50 am

          You’re nothing but a GOPe shill (at best), and you have been ever since you showed up here.

Sailorcurt | March 1, 2024 at 3:53 pm

OK.

And?

Now what?

We talk and we talk and we talk, but no one has actually DONE anything to address the fact that the nation formerly known as the United States of America has plainly become the world’s biggest banana republic.

We keep playing along as if we actually have a functioning judiciary even though events over the past couple of years have demonstrated thoroughly that we do not. There is no justice in the United States any more. Demonstrable criminals are ignored because they hold the “correct” views and support the “correct” political party, while the political rivals of the current administration are dragged before kangaroo courts over and over and over again.

Violent protests are dismissed as “mostly peaceful” and the instigators and participants are hailed because they hold the “correct” views while actual peaceful protests are violently broken up and the participants ruthlessly tracked down and jailed indefinitely under horrific conditions because they hold views unapproved by the current party in power.

And we write blog posts in response.

We’ve already lost, we just haven’t yet faced the truth.

“Over the Judiciary department, the Constitution [has] deprived [the people] of their control. … The original error [was in] establishing a judiciary independent of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law, can turn its guns on those they were meant to defend, and control and fashion their proceedings to its own will. … The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch. … It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation. … It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression…that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.”
–Thomas Jefferson

Smart Man.

    henrybowman in reply to Sailorcurt. | March 1, 2024 at 6:25 pm

    Jefferson’s life was an ironic kaleidoscope of principle and pragmatism. His most portentous action as president was in total violation of the constitution — and if he had not committed it, the US would never have become the greatest nation on earth.

    Andy in reply to Sailorcurt. | March 2, 2024 at 11:27 am

    Eventually they will poke the wrong bear.

    (reference Jordan Peterson’s “be a monster” speech.)

    Some monsters know how to be invisible and have very high IQs. Don’t mistake their peaceful observation for weakness.

wendybar | March 1, 2024 at 4:08 pm

Glenn Beck
@glennbeck
The FBI has ARRESTED Blaze Media investigative journalist
@TPC4USA
on 4 misdemeanor charges:

– Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority (So, will they arrest the NYT journalist who entered BEFORE Steve through a broken window?)

– Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds (Didn’t happen)

– Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building (Didn’t happen)

– Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building (Didn’t happen)
https://twitter.com/i/status/1763591311397937529

UJ | March 1, 2024 at 4:08 pm

But Trump’s going to be the problem if he’s re-elected. Right. 🙄

rhhardin | March 1, 2024 at 4:13 pm

I don’t see why journalists get special privileges. The problem is that the whole J6 thing is an political intelligence operation, not that he’s a journalist.

Journalist comes from diurnal. You write every day.

alaskabob | March 1, 2024 at 4:17 pm

His entire time at the Capitol is viewable on video. These are the classic charges for anyone not part of the Dem machine…including “their” press. So many have pleaded “guilty” to avoid prison. A fellow Raleigh journalist had the same charges… sent to MEDIUM security prison and initially put in solitary confinment for TWO months. The other prisoners… real ones… said no one sent there for those charges. “How we burned in the camps..”

Years ago, in Moscow, our student group wound up under obvious KGB surveillance. Since then I have weighed the FBI versus the KGB. Early morning raids when the FBI is fully alert and their victims are groggy has led to at least one death…. yep…. FBI is the USSA’s KGB is all respects.

guyjones | March 1, 2024 at 5:10 pm

The vile Dhimmi-crats and the DOJ/FBI are going full-Stasi/NKVD, now.

Fairness, legality, morality and common sense don’t apply.

[email protected] | March 1, 2024 at 5:53 pm

All of which are crap from Biden’s gestapo.

sfharding | March 1, 2024 at 6:09 pm

Be warned, the vile politicization of the DOJ/FBI, begun in earnest by Obama, has now been extended to our military. DOJ, FBI, DHS, IRS, and now DOD. All armed to the teeth, with the most powerful weapons on earth. Combined, they are the most powerful army ever assembled in all of history. Remember, Obama did not seek to change America for the better, or to improve upon “our more perfect union”. He sought instead to FUNDAMENTALLY change America. Out with the founding! This is what he intended, and this is what he has wrought.

Mauiobserver | March 1, 2024 at 6:14 pm

Brings to mind “first they came for the Jews”.

At some point establishment Republicans and Independents will realize that they can also be persecuted. Hopefully the realization comes before all semblance of a justice system is destroyed.

henrybowman | March 1, 2024 at 6:16 pm

“The agents acknowledged Baker’s profession as a member of the press, stating that they needed “special permission” to conduct the meeting.”

Feverishly looking for my larger magnifying glass so that I can locate the portion of the First Amendment that limits freedom of the press to “state-recognized journalists.”

jhkrischel | March 1, 2024 at 6:31 pm

It used to be that there was a cost/benefit analysis done, before whipping out the full muscle of the law. So, if you’re an IRS agent, and you figure six months of your salary is gonna be $100k, it wouldn’t make any sense to spend a full six months on an audit that would only net you $20k at the most.

Same sort of thing with prosecutions of misdemeanors – if you have a limited amount of resources, you let a few small fish go so you’ve got the $$ to go after the big fish that might be really important to get.

But under Democrat rule, they never look at costs – only to their political benefits. They’ll burn through millions of dollars to harass one completely low-level person, because the political benefit for them might be $20k worth of campaign spending.

I think the only way this stops is if the House shuts down the government, and makes it stick, and doesn’t give back-pay to any of the government employees. I don’t know how possible that is, but barring that, until these people are actually held personally, financially accountable, I don’t see them changing their ways.

jmt9455 | March 1, 2024 at 6:55 pm

Posting on a website does nothing….

If we all sent an email to the fbi & attorney general, maybe they’d wake up just a bit…

What a joke: “Your justice department”

Here’s the link: https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice

    Ghostrider in reply to jmt9455. | March 2, 2024 at 8:00 am

    I feel writing to the DOJ is a trap. They want you to turn people in, tip them off, and not complain to them about them. If you do complain, they send the FBI your name, email address and profile to “open a probe.”

Sanddog | March 1, 2024 at 7:27 pm

Handcuffs and Leg Irons along with taking his tie, belt and shoelaces. All for 4 overcharged, non violent misdemeanors. I’m glad Steve showed up in a suit and tie. They wanted him in shorts and flip flops so they could portray him as small and pathetic. This is all because he recorded people protesting the government AT the seat of government instead of the approved manner of setting fire to a gas station and knocking over a foot locker.

Barry | March 1, 2024 at 10:03 pm

The GOPe is the responsible party for the government crackdown on freedom and liberty. I read it’s all the fault of the marxist democrats…

No. The GOP has the ability to put a stop to this anytime it wishes and they never lift a finger. They don’t stop the illegal corrupt prosecution of individuals that were in DC on Jan 6 to support Trump and protest the theft of the 2020 election (a coup actually).

How many times has a Bush protested the treatment of Americans in DC on Jan 6? McConnell? McCarthy? Party leaders?

A few R’s have visited the jail and complained. But they will all continue to work with other marxist party to steal your money and spend it on curtailing your freedom.

    Mauiobserver in reply to Barry. | March 1, 2024 at 10:25 pm

    Yep the Bush clan and establishment types hate Trump and deplorables as much as the Democrats do.

    GW has posed with Obama and Clinton promoting a program for more mass migration.

Crawford | March 2, 2024 at 11:08 am

I recall there was a CNN stringer in the Capitol — when is his arrest?

Tom Morrow | March 2, 2024 at 1:43 pm

Almost 250 years ago, a group of men from different states gathered in Philadelphia and drafted a list of complaints and offenses by the government as an explanation for their severing ties with said government and embarking upon an armed revolution against same.

Today’s government, especially as run by Democrats and statist bureaucrats, has equaled the offenses that started our Revolutionary War.

Welcome to Antebellum 2.0.

    henrybowman in reply to Tom Morrow. | March 3, 2024 at 1:00 am

    224 years ago, the Washington establishment sought to commit presidential election interference by using a constitutional “loophole” to elect a candidate that the people had soundly rejected. They changed their minds when the militia of Pennsylvania promised to conduct an ARMED “insurrection” if they proceeded with their plans. It concentrated their representatives’ minds wonderfully.

    It’s time to bring back real old-school American “politics.”

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