Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker says his attorney will ask U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper for a continuance of his Jan. 6 criminal case so that he can seek reconsideration of the judge’s refusal to dismiss charges based on selective prosecution.
In a nine-page Oct. 25 opinion and order, Judge Cooper said Baker failed to demonstrate the elements of his motion to dismiss the four misdemeanor charges against him for being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Baker said defense attorney William Shipley will ask for a trial delay in order to seek reconsideration of Cooper’s decision.
“The most important legal argument that we’re bringing is this: Somewhere in the vicinity of 80 journalists of all types — credentialed employees of mainstream news organizations from the New York Times to the L.A. Times to French media to British television — went through broken windows and broken doors that day without permission,” Baker said Oct. 29.
“Included in that bunch were freelancers, independents, bloggers, podcasters, and social media influencers without credentials,” Baker said.
Reporters and photographers for those media organizations have not been arrested or charged with trespassing or other misdemeanor crimes for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6. More than a half-dozen right-of-center journalists have been prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice for being on restricted grounds Jan. 6.
Baker said Cooper’s decision does not answer the legal points Shipley raised in the original motion to dismiss the charges.
Baker was arrested in Dallas on March 1 and charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Baker’s case is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C. The pending motion for reconsideration could delay the trial date. A pretrial hearing in the case is set for Nov. 6.
In response to a request for comment, Daniel Ball, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, told Blaze News: “We do not have any additional comments outside of what you can find in publicly available court filings.”
Judge Cooper previously denied Baker’s motion to be allowed to retain his firearms during the case due to ongoing threats based on his investigative reporting. Baker said two stalkers have followed him across the country in the past six months.
Shipley appealed the firearms denial to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but that court upheld Cooper’s ruling.
Baker said the DOJ has extended a plea offer to him. Three charges would be dismissed in exchange for a guilty plea to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. The offer is under consideration, he said.
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Politics