Blaze Media journalist Steve Baker was arrested by the FBI and brought to a Texas federal courtroom in handcuffs, a belly chain and foot shackles to face four nonviolent misdemeanor charges for being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Accompanied by defense attorneys James Lee Bright and Edward Tarpley Jr., Mr. Baker surrendered at the FBI field office in Dallas at 7 a.m. on March 1.
On the lapel of his suit jacket, he wore a pin with an upside-down FBI badge that forms the logo of “the Suspendables,” a group of FBI whistleblowers that includes Kyle Seraphin, Steve Friend, and Garret O’Boyle. He had been advised by the FBI to show up in shorts and sandals, but instead came dressed in a suit.
After being walked out of the FBI building in handcuffs, Mr. Baker was taken to the The Earle Cabell Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Clinton Averitte. He was turned over to U.S. Marshals.
Mr. Baker was charged in a criminal complaint in Washington D.C. with 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,” Mr. Baker told The Epoch Times after his release. “That was not my favorite moment in life. Just a deliberate humiliation. It was something they didn’t have to do.”
courtroom also scheduled to appear before Judge Averitte. She had no handcuffs or leg restraints.
“Absolutely, stunningly ridiculous on misdemeanor charges,” William Shipley, who heads Mr. Baker’s six-attorney legal team, wrote on X after a video of Baker being led away in handcuffs went viral. The video has more than 7 million views on X. “I could not get an explanation for why it was necessary for Steve to go to the FBI.
“We considered defying that demand and have him simply appear at the courthouse and go to the U.S. Marshal’s Office for processing,” Mr. Shipley said.
After the court hearing, Mr. Baker was released on standard conditions, with no restrictions on his travel or communications, except he is not allowed to text his FBI case agent, Craig Noyes, according to defense attorney Brad Geyer.
Mr. Baker said the 16-page statement of facts produced by the FBI to support his charges contained “a couple” of lies and focused almost exclusively on what he said about things related to Jan. 6 rather than what he did that day.
Agents quoted from a YouTube video he posted the night of Jan. 6 in which Mr. Baker told a friend that his reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office being ransacked, “It couldn’t happen to a more deserving [expletive].”
“There’s nothing in there about my behavior,” Mr. 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.”
Mr. Geyer said his client’s arrest shows an “unprecedented shift in Department of Justice policy [after it] had spent decades adhering to special protections for journalists.”
Mr. Baker previously told The Epoch Times that when the FBI first contacted him in July 2021, agents had to reschedule the voluntary session because they needed permission from the attorney general to interview a journalist.
“Without Steve Baker’s early reporting, crucial aspects of events, such as unlawful force, the Capitol breach, and the role of suspicious actors in influencing events of the day might have gone unnoticed,” Mr. Geyer told The Epoch Times.
“Moreover, his reporting since January 6 proved two crucial government witnesses in the Oath Keeper prosecutions provided outrageously false testimony,” Mr. Geyer said. “His investigation has raised disturbing questions about the origin and earnestness of the investigations of the ‘pipe bombs.’”