The Department of Justice and FBI have ordered Blaze Media investigative journalist to self-surrender himself for unknown reasons related to January 6th. Baker, who expects to be charged or even prevented from traveling to Washington D.C., joins Glenn to explain what he knows. Baker lays out why he believes the DOJ is retaliating against him for his reporting on the events of January 6th, which has exposed huge cracks in the government's narrative. Plus, he explains the story that he believes caused the DOJ to act.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. We have Steve Baker on the phone.
Blaze Media, investigative journalist, who has been looking into the January 6th debacle and has made massive headway.
And it's my understanding, that Steve and the team were up in Washington. Here in the last couple of weeks. I think some of them just got back yesterday.
Spent a lot of time with the January 6th footage.
Full access now. Because of Steve.
And some news stories are coming.
But what a surprise, Steve.
You were notified by the US Department of Justice.
STEVE: Yes. Good morning. That was a great good morning I had yesterday.
GLENN: I bet.
STEVE: Yeah. We're actually here right now.
I'm actually talking to you from the secure video room. At one of the congressional office buildings in DC. We have our Blaze guys right here right now. Working on the consoles. And we've been here all week.
We're not going to stop working. I'm not going to quit doing what I'm doing. And we will just move forward, regardless of what they throw at us.
GLENN: Hang on.
I want to hear what you are finding, if you can. Give us any kind of hint on what's next coming our way.
Tell me, what are you being charged with now?
STEVE: Well, they notified my attorney yesterday morning.
That I needed to self-present. Or self-surrender myself to Raleigh North Carolina.
On Tuesday or Thursday. Arrange for that to happen on Tuesday. When we ask for what the actual charges will be. We were told by the FBI agent, that he -- quote, unquote, didn't know. And that he wouldn't know, until the magistrate signed off on the warrant.
Now, they are telling us, that I'm going to just be processed.
And then released on my own recognizance.
I will not be detained. I will not be held overnight.
Then, of course, I will be subject to whatever the magistrate decides to put on me.
I don't know if that will include surrendering of my devices.
Because, again, we haven't seen the warrant.
I don't know if that's going to include a surrendering of my weapons. I don't know if that will include any gag orders of any types.
I don't know if that will include any prescriptions that will prevent me from traveling to DC.
That's usually what happens to the January 6 event. One of the first things they do, is they prevent travel to DC.
GLENN: What a surprise. What a surprise, Steve.
What a surprise. Have you downloaded to the rest of the team, so the work can continue?
Have you downloaded what you know, and what you're looking for?
So the rest of the team, can continue?
If you can't go in?
STEVE: We have multiple dead man switches. There's your answer to that.
GLENN: And, by the way, dead man switch. We know, Steve. He's not suicidal at all. At all.
And apparently, can't hang himself with paper sheets.
So he has that going for him.
Well, please keep us informed.
You have to surrender on Tuesday. I know TheBlaze will have stories next week on this.
Is there any doubt in your mind.
Because you were contacted by the Justice Department. What?
About six months after January 6th. Because you were there.
STEVE: That's correct.
Yeah, they contacted me in July of '21. I did my first -- my only FBI interview in August of '21.
We were notified by the Department of Justice a month later. The week before Thanksgiving.
In November of '21, we were told that I would be charged within the week at that time.
And then they developed off the map. We didn't hear from them, until 20 months later. Which was August of this year. When I got a subpoena, grand jury subpoena, for all of my January 6th videos.
GLENN: And what does your attorney think, this is -- that was about?
STEVE: Well, that was interesting. Because grand juries are not convened for misdemeanor charges. They're convened only for felony investigations.
Now, that doesn't mean. Because we don't know it. They won't tell us anything. Maybe they just wanted my video for somebody else's investigation.
Or maybe it was applicable to what they were looking at for me.
And then there's no assurance that even though, there was a grand jury looking at me or the videos, that they will apply a felony account.
Look, we can assure the world right now, because actually, one of our guys right here, is harvesting every second of me in the Capitol right now.
We're going to show the world in advance, long before this thing ever goes to trial or any such nonsense. That obviously at any point, at any time, when I was on campus, there was never any violence. Never any property damage. There was never any untoward behavior. I didn't wear Trump gear. I didn't parade. I wasn't carrying a flag.
GLENN: You didn't stand on a bench, did you? God forbid.
STEVE: I did do that. I did do that. There is a federal law against that.
GLENN: I know there is.
STEVE: So I may have to plea down to bench standing.
GLENN: But wait. You did that not as a protestor, as a journalist, to get a bird's eye view, right?
STEVE: Yes! That's exactly what I did. I got up and away from the crowd, so I could record what was going on. And that was in the crypt, below the rotunda, where I did that.
And so it's going to be an interesting presentation, well in advance of whatever the government is putting together. Because we will be able to lay it out, and show side by side. A
That there were 60 other journalists.
That we were aware of, that travel through the same breached doors.
And, of course, I didn't arrive until after several hundred people were in the Capitol.
There were 60 other journalists.
Many of whom went through those doors long before I did.
Or were at that initial breach, that have never been charged.
It really comes down to who they were submitting their stories and videos to at the time.
And obviously, you know, whatever -- whatever the narrative was. The headline of the story was, like the New Yorker story. With Luke Mogul said, among the insurrectionists -- well, then he probably got a Get Out of Jail Free card for that headline.
GLENN: Well, but wait a minute. But you had your video with HBO. They're not necessarily a flag waver of the right.
STEVE: Yeah. They licensed. They licensed my videos. New York Times licensed my videos. As did many other news agencies around the world.
That was through my agency.
GLENN: Okay. So can I ask you just a couple of Frank questions. Because we really just got to know each other recently.
And, you know, are you a hardened Nazi lover that is, I don't know, you know, burning crosses?
STU: You don't lead conversations with this question. You waited this long to ask.
GLENN: I know. I know.
We have gotten to a, are you a member of the Nazi part of our friendship yet?
STEVE: Glenn, I usually get dinner and a couple of drinks before I get asked questions like that.
(laughter)
No. Absolutely not. I am -- if you -- if you analyze my politics, I am what I refer to as a pragmatic Libertarian.
And I have never had any associations with any militias.
Any 3 percenters. Any Proud Boys.
Oath Keepers or otherwise.
And I have basically kept to myself. And kept to my musical career for most of my life.
As a trumpet player and a singer.
And my journalism was my side hustle, as they say, for 20, 25 years.
And that was accelerated when COVID came to town. And I was not allowed to work in the music business for a year and a half. So I moved my journalism. And my investigative research into the captain's chair of my life. And then January 6th happened.
So that became a primary focus of what I've been working on.
GLENN: Well, we are obviously going to be following your story. And every indication is that exactly what you've said. And as you say, our team is there, looking at all the video footage of you, right now.
To make sure that we have the story and can get it out.
But also, all the other things that you are looking into.
Can you give us a sneak peak into anything else you're working on for January 6th?
STEVE: Yeah. I can tell you, that we are continuing our stories on the Capitol Police.
There's a real focus there.
In fact, I don't have it -- a second's worth of hesitation to tell you, that the story that we came out with last Thursday. Friday. That directly showed Capitol Police cover-up in corruption.
At the highest level. Probably triggered this action from the DOJ.
GLENN: Go over that story, for anybody who didn't see it.
STEVE: Yeah. The story is a particular police officer, who we have been covering. Issued an anonymous letter on Capitol Police letterhead back in May of '21. It was highly partisan, highly political. Major violation of the Hatch Act.
Major violation of the Capitol Police rules and regulations for their officers. And he was prompted to write this letter.
It was a political screed against the Republicans, that were opposed to Nancy Pelosi's January 6th select committee.
And as a result of a prompting he got from Representative Raskin, of all people.
And that was a situation where he took Raskin's prompting, and went and created this letter.
And then also solicited help from the Capitol press pool. And then he had actually some female reporters in the press pool, assist him in crafting this anonymous letter.
And when this was released on May 19th and May 20th, it was discovered the next day.
Because the cop is not very bright. He used this Capitol Police email, and he used Capitol Police printers to print off hard copies. And so he was brought in, and his investigation began the next day.
And we revealed that not only did he initially lie about the action that he had taken, using Capitol Police resources at the time, to craft a highly partisan political anonymous letter, misrepresenting the department. That this was what would be called a terminable offense. He should have been fired on the spot. There's a problem with that, though, Glenn.
We're talking about Harry Dunn, the hero of January 6th as the media has put forth.
So rather than taking disciplinary action against him. The -- the Capitol Police spiked that report.
They let him off with a 530 warning.
Meaning, that was just a warning, just a slap on the wrist. Don't do that again Harry.
And he got by with it.
Rather than being an interminable event. He was not disciplined at all.
And therefore, was allowed to testify in those oath keeper trials.
And, of course, we know where that goes from there. So you see the he connectivity there.
GLENN: Go ahead. Go ahead.
STEVE: Just to finish that up. One of the things I've been able to do. Through sources over the past couple of years, I do have and have been able to capture some internal communications between oath keeper leadership. And we know that they are livid.
In fact, they -- on Friday's report, when I released the names involved. Harry Dunn. Representative Jamie Raskin, Whitney Wild from CNN, who participated in this.
GLENN: Jeez.
STEVE: Anonymous letter. When I put all this together and published that. The chief counsel for the Capitol Police, actually called me that Twitter guy, Steve baker.
For releasing this information. And so we're seeing. We're learning. We're knowing about these kinds of things that are happening.
And we know they are upset.
And his name is Ted -- I think it's -- it's Tobias or something like that.
He's the chief counsel. He's a former federal prosecutor. Former assistant US attorney.
And he works with the Department of Justice on these cases, related to January 6th. And so we're pretty sure, we don't -- we don't have to stretch this too far to imagine, that this is probably what triggered this action against me after two and a half years.
GLENN: Steve Baker, investigative journalist, Blaze Media contributor, and now famously that Twitter guy. Thank you for everything.
Steve, we will be following this obviously very closely. And good luck. Good luck. Stay safe, please.
STEVE: Will do. Thank you, Glenn.
GLENN: Got it. We'll keep you in our prayers.
