Prosecution or persecution? Steve Baker’s case tests the justice system

If you believe what the federal government and the corporate media tell you about Steve Baker, you’d think he's an agitator at best and a “stochastic terrorist” at worst. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

(I wish the left had never discovered the word "stochastic,” but that's a complaint for another time.)

Steve is a journalist, and he along with many other peaceful people is being sacrificed at the altar of a narrative built on lies.

The reality is that Baker is a journalist, and his reporting has been invaluable to the public interest.

But then, Baker is not alone. He’s one of many people, including journalists, whose lives and livelihoods are being threatened by the federal government, all for one simple reason: They jeopardize the narrative about what really happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

He threatens that narrative with the truth.

A little background on Steve: He's an independent investigative reporter who until last year covered news from a libertarian perspective as the Pragmatic Constitutionalist.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Steve watched as anger grew among Trump supporters who believed that the election was stolen. When he learned that the Stop the Steal rally was being planned for January 6 in Washington, D.C., he knew he had to be there.

At the time, Steve didn't believe that the election was stolen. But he also knew that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of Trump supporters were going to converge outside the U.S. Capitol while their representatives would be confirming the election results.

This was news, and Steve is a journalist.

So for many weeks before, he publicized to his audience that he would be attending the rally. He was bringing his camera, and he planned to do “man-on-the-street” interviews of attendees to get their thoughts about what was happening.

On the day of the event, he came and began recording. Then all hell broke loose.

Steve watched as some of the Stop the Steal protesters began to breach the security fences and enter the Capitol Building. This was breaking news, and so Steve, along with many other journalists, entered with them.

Federal prosecutors allege Steve engaged in “disorderly conduct,” “picketing,” and “abusive language” while he was in the Capitol. You can watch the footage and see for yourself. Let me know when he starts doing any of that. (He doesn’t.)

Steve Baker Inside the Capitol on January 6www.youtube.com

Steve walked around with the protesters, recording everything he saw, and he left the building when the others left. He didn’t hide any of his actions after the fact, either in his own reporting or in interviews with other reporters. His footage was used by many media outlets, including the New York Times and HBO. If you've watched any footage from that day, you’ve almost certainly watched some of Steve's video.

And for three years, the feds saw no reason to arrest Steve for the journalism he did that day.

But then he started reporting on the January 6 trials. And that’s where his problems started.

Your federal government wants you to believe that every single attendee of the Stop the Steal rally was a violent insurrectionist and that we were a hair's breadth away from losing our democracy forever.

It wasn’t just a protest attended by tens of thousands, some of whom trespassed in the Capitol and even fewer of whom got violent with Capitol Police.

Nope. America almost died on January 6, and anyone who disagrees is also an insurrectionist.

That’s why Steve's reporting on the trials has been so dangerous to that narrative. Steve has uncovered a pattern of abuse, lies, and railroading of defendants, many of whom did nothing more than walk around outside the Capitol Building.

For example, the judge in the trial of journalist Stephen Horn denied his motion to present to the jury his portfolio of press passes and credentials he’d acquired when covering events, all the way back to when he was 16 years old. This allowed prosecutors to deny his claim that he was in Washington, D.C., as a journalist.

J.D. Rivera, a professional videographer and photojournalist, was raided at his home by 20 FBI agents, with guns pointed at him, his wife, and his children, all for a nonviolent misdemeanor. He pled not guilty on First Amendment and selective prosecution grounds, and the judge denied him the right to present evidence for his case. He was convicted and sentenced to eight months in a medium-security prison where misdemeanor offenders are not held — except for January 6 defendants.

In the Oath Keepers trial, FBI Special Agent David Lazarus, the prosecution's “star witness,” appears to have committed perjury. He claimed that he witnessed multiple instances of “antagonistic interactions” between Oath Keepers and Capitol police. The only problem is he wasn’t present for the incidents he described.

Proof of Perjury | The Truth About January 6youtu.be

For years, Steve Baker has been revealing to the public not only that the narrative is wrong about what happened on January 6, 2021, but also that the government is so hell-bent on convincing you that it was an insurrection that it is destroying the lives of journalists and misdemeanor offenders, even resorting to breaking the law in court.

Only after all Steve broke these stories did the Justice Department finally decide to charge and arrest him. He was forced to turn himself in on March 1 and put through a perp walk.

His presiding judge in Washington, D.C., will be Christopher Cooper, the same judge who held journalist Catherine Herridge in contempt for refusing to reveal her sources for her story about the FBI’s strange refusal to arrest a suspected Chinese spy.

Keep in mind that prior to January 6, the FBI had never even investigated a single misdemeanor. Now agents are raiding the homes of people who have been accused of misdemeanors.

Also keep in mind that Steve has recognized and stated that anyone who was violent or destructive on January 6 should be prosecuted for it.

The crux of the government's argument against Steve that he wasn’t a journalist and was instead a “misdemeanor terrorist,” as Steve likes to put it, is that:

1) Steve made statements in support of the January 6 protesters. Because, as we know, none of the reporters who recorded the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 have expressed support for the rioting.

2) Steve has said that wished he had stolen Nancy Pelosi's computer while he was in the Capitol Building. In case you aren't aware, it is not illegal to wish you had broken a law.

3) Steve asked Capitol Police officers if they were going to use their guns on him. This is also not against the law and is in fact an understandable thing to ask someone who is pointing a gun at you.

4) He referred to Nancy Pelosi as a “bitch.” If this is a crime, I plead the Fifth!

That’s the gist of their argument.

Now, let’s pretend there is no valid journalistic interest in covering an historic moment as it unfolds. And let’s further pretend that it is illegal to say things that are legal to say.

Let's really push it and pretend that the government really meant to prosecute Steve back in 2021 and that this absolutely isn’t retaliation for him exposing officials' criminal behavior. They just hadn’t gotten around to arresting him yet.

The fact remains that these are nonviolent misdemeanor charges.

Why wasn’t Steve given a chance simply to go to court and either plead not guilty or take a deal where he would pay a fine, maybe enter some diversion program or do some community service, and put all this behind him? Why was he forced to surrender, arrested, and put through the indignity of a perp walk? Why are government officials referring to him as a terrorist, an insurrectionist, and a threat to our democracy?

For the same reason they’re doing it to all the other journalists and nonviolent January 6 defendants. For the same reason they’re attempting to prosecute journalists like Julian Assange and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. Because they’ve all committed the ultimate crime: contempt for omnipotent government.

Whatever you think of Donald Trump, whatever you think of the 2020 election, it really doesn't matter.

I am no Trump supporter. I ran against Trump and Biden on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2020. I don’t believe the election results themselves were manipulated, although it's clear that the government colluded with Big Tech and the corporate media to suppress and distort information that could have changed how millions of people voted.

But none of that matters when it comes to Steve’s case. The truth is what matters.

And the truth is that Steve is a journalist, and he along with many other peaceful people is being sacrificed at the altar of a narrative that is built on lies.

I stand with Steve and those other journalists and peaceful people, and I call for their persecution to end and for them to be treated with the respect and justice they deserve.

I stand with the truth, and I invite you to join me.