Steve Michael Baker was inside the U.S. Capitol for about 37 minutes, authorities said. (Photos from court documents)
A writer for a conservative media outlet surrendered this week to face charges in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Stephen Michael Baker faces four misdemeanor counts, including trespassing and disorderly conduct charges. He was released from custody on Friday, said his defense attorney William Shipley, The Associated Press reported.
Baker, who has written about the Jan. 6 riots for Blaze News, founded by former FOX News commentator Glenn Beck, posted about his arrest on X.
“BREAKING — This time, it’s really happening,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Unlike the two previous threats my attorneys received from @FBI @thejusticedept (Nov. 21 and Dec. 23), my self-surrender for alleged J6 crimes is set for this Friday morning in Dallas, TX. There is now a signed arrest warrant.”
“We do not yet know the specific charges,” he continued. “Technically … they are still ‘under seal’ until the warrant is served. All else is as yet unknown. By this weekend, I will officially be a misdemeanor domestic journo-terrorist. (Something like that.) And so it begins.”
Shipley called it “selective prosecution” because Baker is a conservative writer, and said journalists should be concerned, the AP said.
“Those can get reversed when the politics of the moment change,” he said, the wire service reported.
Blaze Media editor-in-chief Matthew Peterson echoed the concerns, saying on X he was there 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,” he said.
An affidavit that Shipley provided to the AP said Baker allegedly entered the Capitol building through the broken Senate wing door at approximately 2:19 p.m. and joined a mob at the barricaded doors to the House Chamber when police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. At one point, he repeatedly asked officers, “Are you going to use that [gun] on us?!” before he was led out of the Capitol by police at 2:56 p.m.
Baker came to the attention of the FBI from an anonymous tipster who shared a link to a YouTube channel, “The Pragmatic Constitutionalist.” In the video, Baker and another man recounted the events on Jan. 6, authorities said.
The two allegedly discussed being in the “midst of a cloud of tear gas and pepper spray,” and being “in this sea of humanity” as the crowd continues to grow and “it’s getting a little angrier.”
“Steve tells me someone’s been shot and he doesn’t think she’s gonna make it … and oh btw, he says, “I was in the first breach inside the Capitol,” court documents said, the man he’s talking with says.
In the video, Baker admitted he was in Nancy Pelosi’s office, the affidavit said.
“Once the crowd started moving in, I went, ‘I gotta get this too, man,” he said, according to the affidavit. “So I started following them into the Cap- and we got in, and it was free reign for the most part inside the building.”
“In fact, we even got into … I-I was in Pelosi’s office. I mean we went into Pelosi’s office.”
The only regret he had, he allegedly said, was not stealing their computers “because God knows what I could’ve found on their computers if I’d done that. But by the time I got into Pelosi’s office, unfortunately there was some damage done.”
Reacting to the vandalism in Pelosi’s office, he said, “They got Pelosi’s office and you know, it couldn’t happen to a better deserving b—-,” court documents said.
Court documents said once he was outside, he narrated: “They came in heavy man, we got to the House, uhh, door. The House of Representatives entrance. They came in hardcore. Automatic rifles. Everything. It’s an amazing situation out here.”
Baker was interviewed by a local news channel in an interview posted on Facebook the next day, court documents said.
During the interview, he said, “Yeah I was quite excited to see this going on,” and stated, “Do I approve of what happened today? I approve 100%,” according to the affidavit.
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