Independent journalist Steve Baker, aka The Pragmatic Constitutionalist (@TPC4USA), says he is about to break a J6 story that is so big that researchers privy to the details think it will be the biggest blockbuster about J6 since January 6. That's not just big, that's colossal! The
Blaze, which recently hired Baker, will get the honors of publishing this scoop; further, The Blaze has promised to stand by Baker now that he has been hit by a DOJ subpoena which calls him to Washington, DC, on Wednesday to present his video footage of January 6 to a Grand Jury.
Yes, you read that right. The DOJ is once again trampling the First Amendment to silence Us, the People -- in this case, Steve Baker, one of precious few American souls bold enough, post-coup, to say and write and seek the truth. Baker also happens to be on a roll. In addition to pulling his Big Story together after spending his allotted three days studying the fabled 41,000 hours of J6 video footage, the Raleigh-based journalist recently updated his continuing investigation into the J6 presence at the Capitol of a "top-secret SIGINT group from Ft. Belvoir, just outside D.C."
How top-secret is this top-secret SIGINT group? According to Baker's congressional sources also seeking info on the J6 mission of this same undercover group, they are being stonewalled by the Department of Defense with the excuse that these super-secret special operators "don't officially exist." Two days after Baker posted his update, Assistant US Attorney Anita Eve -- she who authorized the outrageous, brutish swatting of anti-abortion activist and Catholic author Mark Houck and family -- pinged Steve Baker's lawyer. Coincidence? I seriously doubt it.
To be sure, these optics for the Regime are awful -- the DOJ hammer coming down on a genuinely talented and engaged investigative reporter on the brink of his biggest story ever. (Watch Ivory Hecker interview Steve Baker about his DOJ subpoena here.)
I should say these optics would be awful for the Regime if corporate media actually reported on them. Instead, probably the largest outlet to publish anything is the Epoch Times: "Independent Journalist Receives Jan. 6 Grand Jury Subpoena/Steve Baker says he believes actors within the Department of Justice seek to 'silence' him." Imagine if such a headline led the news on all of the frontpages and homepages out there. Of course, first the MSM would have to return to the First Amendment.
Far worse than overall media silence is that of the GOP House, which continues to fund what I can only describe as the DOJ/FBI/Judiciary gang-rape of due process as it relates to J6. This makes the GOP an accessory after the fact. Oh, and by the way, the reason Steve Baker's story hasn't come out yet is because Speaker McCarthy has put a "pause" on access to the J6 footage, which Baker needs to revisit in order to doublecheck some things before publication.
Uh-oh.
Baker says he's been told he will be allowed to return absolutely just as soon as Speaker McCarthy's office releases new media access guidelines, which are tied in some way to a lawsuit first brought by a media consortium back when Tucker Carlson's team had exclusive access to the footage. And when will these new media access guidelines release be? I don't want to be bummer so I won't speculate. It was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago, then last week, then this week -- but it didn't. Maybe next week.
That's when Baker has his appointment with the J6 Grand Jury. Although the DOJ subpoena is for his videotape, Baker believes he is under investigation, as he was back in November, 2021, when there was ridiculous but menacing talk of charges against him for property damage and -- get this -- interstate racketeering.
From The Blaze:
Baker said AUSA [Anita] Eve "didn't provide any explanation for [the racketeering charge], that being a felony charge which carries up to a 20-year sentence," but he had gathered from the FBI's previous interest in his licensing of Jan. 6 footage that the small profits from his journalistic videography were likely at issue.
After Eve's chilling email, Baker and his attorney sent a press release to roughly 200 different media agencies on Monday morning of Thanksgiving week 2021, as part of what he called a "press offensive."
The release noted that Baker was a journalist whose videos had been used by the New York Times, Newsmax, and various other media outlets; was not affiliated with any political party; participated in no acts of violence; and had informed his readers ahead of time that he had gone to D.C. to cover the rally.
Struck by the possibility that the DOJ was attempting to intimidate a journalist, some lawmakers and law minders reached out to Baker asking how they could help.
Baker said Eve was less than enthused by his effective maneuver.
By 1:00 p.m. the same day, "AUSA Anita Eve sent a copy of that press release to my attorney — so they were obviously monitoring my communications, or somebody forwarded it to her, probably the FBI — and all she said in that email to my attorney was, 'We're not happy about this,'" Baker recalled.
Soon after, there was silence -- for 20 months.
The Blaze picks up again with this month's DOJ subpoena:
At this stage, the Raleigh journalist figures "it's either just pure intimidation ... or they're trying to put together some felony charges."
As the likelihood of the racketeering charge sticking is not particularly strong, Baker suggested prosecutors might try to hit him with an obstruction charge – "something they have been more aggressive with in the last year that they did not do in the first two years [of Jan. 6 protester prosecutions] because they were getting lots of complaints from the left ... that these Jan. 6 defendants were not getting longer sentences."
Accordingly, the DOJ may want his footage to shake loose a possible inconsistency with his previous conversations with investigators.
Not that this isn't completely Stalinist: Show DOJ the man, and DOJ will find the crime.
Baker further noted that his original interview with the FBI was conducted on the condition that nothing that he said therein could be used against him in court should prosecutors ultimately decide to file charges — unless he perjured himself. Accordingly, even a perceived half-truth might serve the DOJ as a means to levy a process crime charge.
Now, with two additional years' worth of Baker's reportage and social media posts on file, he reckons that "they're going to be looking for some sort of effort I've made to hide evidence. ... I've just seen too many of these things in the courtroom to not know what they're up to."
I'd put it this way: They are consolidating their illegitimate power by silencing the truth about their illegitimacy. Support Steve Baker by sharing his story, and stay on it. He is currently on Facebook here (although if he's indicted, he notes, FB will take him down), Locals here, and also on Twitter @TPC4USA.
Thomas Jefferson said it best: "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." In other words, the Biden regime and its many acolytes know exactly what they need to do to hang onto power.
This column appears with the kind permission of Diana West, author of the must-read books The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy and American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character. For more from Diana West go to https://dianawest.net/
The Pragmatic Constitutionalist
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