WASHINGTON — More than three years after the riots at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, a North Carolina man was arrested by the U.S. Attorney's office in D.C. and charged with taking part in the insurrection.
To date there are more than 1,200 court cases involving defendants connected to the Capitol riot. This particular arrest stands out because the man being charged participated in an interview with WUSA9 within just a few hours of leaving the Capitol on January 6.
He admitted to WUSA9 that he entered the building and, for a time, was inside former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. He also claimed to be steps away from where protestor Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed.
"Do I approve of what happened today?" asked Steve Baker in response to my question. "I approve 100 percent. Yah. "
Baker was arrested March 1 on four counts including entering a restricted building, two counts of disorderly conduct and demonstrating in a Capitol building. The charges are all misdemeanors.
Baker is a self-described citizen journalist. He has 858 subscribers on his YouTube page 'The Pragmatic Constitutionalist.'
The charging documents from the US Attorney's Office include references to Baker's YouTube videos and references he made to being inside the Capitol on January 6. The documents also include color photos from the US Capitol Police CCTV cameras showing Baker outside and inside of the building. The documents allege Baker was inside the Capitol for 37 minutes. Shortly afterwards and just down the street he did a Zoom interview with WUSA9.
"I'll be honest with you, I was quite excited to see this going on," said Baker. "Now, I'll go so far as to say that the next time it probably won't be so peaceful. I think the next time people will be more prepared and will be much more aggressive than they were this time. "
January 6, 2025 is the date scheduled for when a joint session of Congress is set to meet to certify the 2024 election. The online court docket indicates that Baker is scheduled for a jury trial on November 12, which is exactly one week after Election Day.
The entire video of WUSA9's interview with Steve Baker taken on January 6, 2021 can be seen here.
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