President Joe Biden’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly ordered Steve Baker, an investigative journalist who currently works for Blaze News, to self-surrender in Dallas on Friday due to undisclosed charges over his reporting on January 6, 2021.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Baker explained that his attorneys had received two prior threats from the Biden administration’s Department of Justice and FBI regarding his arrest over his reporting of the Capitol Hill protest.
“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,” Baker wrote. “There is now a signed arrest warrant.”
Baker told Blaze News the FBI ordered him to self-surrender at the FBI field office in Dallas at 7 a.m. on Friday. Blaze News reported that Baker has been instructed to wear “shorts and sandals,” which the journalist claimed is an indication that the FBI is planning to “humiliate” him by having him wear an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. The investigative journalist is expected to appear in a Dallas courthouse at roughly 10 a.m. on Friday in front of a federal magistrate.
“They didn’t have to go this route,” Baker told Blaze News. “We have been told that my charges are only misdemeanors.”
According to Baker, the specific charges that will be brought against him by the FBI have yet to be disclosed. He explained the charges are “under seal” until “the warrant is served.”
“My attorneys have also been assured by the gov. that this will be an ‘in and out’ affair and that they have ‘no intention’ of detaining me,” Baker tweeted. “But, rather than issuing a simple order to appear, they seem to feel the need to give me a dose of the personal humiliation treatment.”
Baker told Blaze News that he does not yet know whether the court will impose pretrial travel restrictions on him; however, he said that similar restrictions have been the “norm for J6 defendants.”
Matthew Peterson, leading editor for Blaze Media, argued that the Biden administration’s treatment of Baker is outrageous.”
“We will be showing the world footage from January 6 that shows Steve was clearly present that day as an independent journalist,” Peterson stated. “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.”
