The FBI detained Blaze Media journalist Steve Baker and transported him to a Texas federal courthouse in handcuffs, a belly chain, and foot shackles to face four nonviolent misdemeanor counts for being in the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
At 7 a.m. on March 1, Baker surrendered to the FBI field office in Dallas, accompanied by defense attorneys James Lee Bright and Edward Tarpley Jr.
On the lapel of his suit jacket, he sported a button with an upside-down FBI badge that forms the logo of “the Suspendables,” a group of FBI whistleblowers including Kyle Seraphin, Steve Friend, and Garret O’Boyle. The FBI had urged him to wear shorts and sandals, but he showed up in a suit.
Baker was led out of the FBI facility in handcuffs and escorted to the Earle Cabell Federal facility and United States Courthouse to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clinton Averitte. He was turned over to the United States Marshals.
As reported by Breanna Morello, Baker had to take off his shoelaces and his tie, provide a DNA sample to authorities, and report to supervised release his whereabouts at all times.
In a criminal complaint filed in Washington, D.C., Baker was accused of knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds without authority, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
“I had to march in, in front of everybody with leg chains on,” Baker told The Epoch Times. “That was not my favorite moment in life. Just a deliberate humiliation. It was something they didn’t have to do.”
When Baker came in court wearing belly and leg chains, he stated that there was another non-Jan. 6 criminal defendant in the courtroom who was also due to appear before Judge Averitte. She didn’t have handcuffs or leg shackles.
“Absolutely, stunningly ridiculous on misdemeanor charges,” said William Shipley, who leads Baker’s six-attorney legal team, in response to a video of Baker being led away.
“I could not get an explanation for why it was necessary for Steve to go to the FBI,” he added. “We considered defying that demand and have him simply appear at the courthouse and go to the U.S. Marshal’s Office for processing.”
As reported by the Epoch Times, Baker remarked that the 16-page statement of facts prepared by the FBI to support his accusations had “a couple” of falsehoods and focused almost entirely on what he said about Jan. 6 rather than what he did that day.
FBI agents cited a YouTube video recorded by Baker on the night of Jan. 6, in which he told a buddy that his reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office being looted was, “It couldn’t happen to a more deserving [expletive].”
“There’s nothing in there about my behavior,” Baker told The Epoch Times. “It’s all about my words. Everything. It’s all about stuff I said before, stuff I said after, and that’s it. No more complicated than that.”
Steve Baker can make a strong case this is an act of retaliation for exposing inconvenient stories that raise serious questions about federal coordination and potential complicity in the events of January 6.
His most explosive story is reportage on the Democratic National Committee headquarters pipe bomb threat, which took place during a mysterious visit from Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, and despite the ostensibly inert ‘dummy bomb’ allegedly being at the DNC overnight, it was reported only ten minutes before the election challenges started at the Electoral College. The DNC headquarters was evacuated, as was a Cannon building.
The incident defies ready explanation because the Municipal Police Department in Washington D.C. and the Secret Service detail for Kamala Harris were shown on surveillance video at the DNC building to have reacted to the reported ‘bomb threat’ with reckless disregard for the safety of passersby, including small children. Nonetheless, a robot dog was later deployed to deactivate the supposedly “viable” device, as the FBI would later, and falsely, claim.
Baker’s stunning addition to the story is that person who “discovered” the inert pipe bomb at the DNC is reportedly a plain clothes Capitol Police officer, which he learned from Congressional sources.
Another major story broken by Steve Baker that put him in the crosshairs of powerful Capitol Hill politicians is that the security chief for former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Special Agent David Lazarus, appears to have given false testimony on the events of January 6, as corroborated by video surveillance footage.
The upshot of the allegedly false testimony is that it played a role in convicting three Oath Keeper defendants for “seditious conspiracy,” the closest the federal government has gotten to convicting any defendant for “insurrection,” and subsequently handed the stiffest prison sentences of any J6 defendants to date: 18 years for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and 12 years for Kelly Meggs. Jessica Watkins and Keith Harrelson were convicted in the case on separate crimes and were given eight-and-a-half and four years in prison, respectively.
Owen Shroyer of InfoWars, who served a 60-day jail sentence for his January 6 conviction, blamed the Biden administration for the arrest of Steve Baker.
I knew Democrats would arrest more journalists after my sentencing & incarceration. I did spend some time in jail & cuffs when I turned myself in but was let out later that day. I hope the same for @TPC4USA, but this doesn’t look good. Will Republicans in Congress stay silent… https://t.co/QA2NjZWxMk
— Owen Shroyer (@OwenShroyer1776) March 1, 2024
“I knew Democrats would arrest more journalists after my sentencing & incarceration,” Shroyer wrote on X. “I did spend some time in jail & cuffs when I turned myself in but was let out later that day. I hope the same for [Steve Baker], but this doesn’t look good. Will Republicans in Congress stay silent again & let this continue?”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) also blasted the Biden regime for the police state tactics.
“The Biden regime just arrested journalist Steve Baker for covering Jan6,” she said. “Owen Shroyer was locked up as well. Free Press is dead in America when the government jails journalists who refuse to report the regime’s political agenda and lies.”
The Biden regime just arrested journalist Steve Baker for covering Jan6.
Owen Shroyer was locked up as well.
Free Press is dead in America when the government jails journalists who refuse to report the regime’s political agenda and lies. https://t.co/Sn2SD9FXyD
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 1, 2024
Glenn Beck, the founder of Blaze Media, described Baker’s arrest and perp walk as “unbelievable.”
“I’m experiencing a day I never thought I would experience in America. A company I founded is under attack by the government,” Beck said on the Friday broadcast of his show.
Where is the outrage from the left side of the aisle over @TPC4USA’s FBI ARREST and SHACKLING of his legs?! I have stood with EVERY journalist, even those I disagree with, because the First Amendment is crucial for our republic to remain. pic.twitter.com/NofH3mq8G6
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) March 1, 2024
J. Michael Waller noted that a New York Times reporter had performed nearly identical actions as Baker on January 6 and has remained uncharged.
“The fifth person through a broken window to enter the Capitol was a New York Times journalist and they are not being charged.”
Steve Baker @TPC4USA did not enter through a broken window. He entered through an open door. https://t.co/N48p8qWJzW
— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) March 1, 2024
“The fifth person through a broken window to enter the Capitol was a New York Times journalist and they are not being charged,” he cited from a Glenn Beck podcast.
“Steve Baker did not enter through a broken window,” Waller added. “He entered through an open door.”
Meanwhile, in Putin’s Russia, thousands of demonstrators turned out to mourn the loss of a journalist and opposition leader named Alexei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances at a penal colony known as the Polar Wolf.
How soon before we see the same mass protests in our own country over independent journalists who are taken as political prisoners for defying the Biden regime?
