(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Blaze Media journalist Steve Baker is facing charges for entering the Capitol to document events during the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising.
Baker’s impending charges were reported Friday by Stephen Horn, another journalist who was charged over his Jan. 6 activities. Horn said the Justice Department asked Baker to turn himself in this week.
Baker said he will not take a plea deal.
“Misdemeanors? For what? Terrorism? Is there such a thing as misdemeanor terrorism charges? 60 other journalists entered the Capitol on J6. Do we all have to see the world through the same prism?” he asked.
Misdemeanors? For what? Terrorism? Is there such a thing as misdemeanor terrorism charges? 60 other journalists entered the Capitol on J6. Do we all have to see the world through the same prism?
Here we go. Game on. I will not take a plea deal.
— Steve Baker – TPC (@TPC4USA) February 24, 2024
Baker has been on the forefront of exposing anomalies and likely government malfeasance on Jan. 6. Recently, he reported that a Capitol Police Special Agent gave false testimony at the Oath Keepers’ sedition trial last year.
Baker is now at least the second reporter to be charged for—by all accounts—purely journalistic activities. He joins Horn, who was convicted of four misdemeanor charges in September for entering the Capitol while filming the Jan. 6 protests/riots. Horn received 12 months of probation last month.
Headline USA understands there are more than 20 other reporters who, like Horn and Baker, entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, but aren’t facing charges. Headline USA reviewed some of their names, but is withholding them so they won’t be targeted, too.
Along with Horn and Baker, the DOJ also charged Infowars host Owen Shroyer with disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area of Capitol grounds.
In Shroyer’s case, he violated terms of a deferred prosecution agreement stemming from a December 2019 arrest for shouting during a House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing. Shroyer’s deferred prosecution agreement entailed him agreeing to do community service and follow certain conditions, such as not engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds.
While Shroyer may not have been prosecuted solely for his journalism, the DOJ nevertheless successfully pushed for a jail sentence for him—even though he never entered the Capitol. In doing so, DOJ prosecutors cited his First Amendment-protected activity as a reason to put him in jail.
“The First Amendment is no bar to the Court’s consideration of Shroyer’s words and actions at sentencing,” the DOJ argued.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
