Steve Baker seeks Jan. 6 trial delay, citing massive Trump election victory



Blaze Media investigative reporter Steve Baker filed a late motion in U.S. District Court to delay all proceedings in his looming Jan. 6 criminal trial, citing the Department of Justice pausing its prosecution of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

The lead defense attorney for Baker, scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 12, asked U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper “to vacate all dates and hearings in this case in the interests of justice, and to set a status conference in this matter for the week of February 2, 2025.”

William Shipley cited the DOJ’s motion to pause the criminal case against the president-elect in light of the Nov. 5 election “to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.”

'The "people" on behalf of whom the government purports to speak made themselves heard clearly on November 5.'

“The unique circumstances now before this Court — a president-elect having pledged to reverse the decision-making of the predecessor administration after having made the issue a part of his campaign promises — and the Department of Justice now making a representation on the record in another case that the election outcome is a change in circumstances warranting a delay, justifies defendant Baker making this motion,” Shipley wrote in a motion filed late on Nov. 10.

Baker, 64, of Raleigh, North Carolina, is charged with four trespass-related misdemeanor counts for being at the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was in Washington to document the historic protests and provide coverage for the readers of his blog, the Pragmatic Constitutionalist. Now a Blaze Media writer, Baker was arrested in Dallas on March 1 and perp-walked in front of media at the FBI offices.

Baker had planned a selective-prosecution defense, noting that no left-of-center media reporters and podcasters were prosecuted for covering the Jan. 6 protests and riots. Armed with a list of more than 75 journalists who were not charged, Baker sought discovery from the government explaining the apparent political tilt in its prosecutions.

Blaze Media investigative reporter Steve Baker is perp-walked before the media at the FBI offices in Dallas on March 1, 2024.Photos by Blaze Media

“To deny this motion, in the face of the Justice Department’s official position, would run contrary to the interests of justice and likely subject the defendant to criminal convictions for no purpose other than expediency,” Shipley wrote.

Baker said the list itself weighs heavily in favor of his selective-prosecution strategy.

“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.”

Trump’s sweeping election victory with 312 Electoral College votes and a popular vote margin of 3.6 million votes creates a new reality that the courts should not ignore, Shipley argued.

Blaze Media journalist Steve Baker captured iconic video footage on the West Plaza of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Steve Baker/Blaze Media

“Before the government makes the claim that the ‘people’ have an interest in the administration of justice as reflected in the Speedy Trial Act, defendant Baker would point out that the ‘people’ on behalf of whom the government purports to speak,” Shipley wrote, “made themselves heard clearly on November 5, and that should mean something to the Department of Justice without regard to what administration is now in charge.”

In a nine-page opinion issued Oct. 25, Cooper refused Baker’s motion to dismiss the charges. He previously denied Baker’s motion to retain his right to carry a firearm after threats were made against his safety. Baker appealed the issue, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against him.

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Leftist Groups Lay Groundwork To Call A Trump Victory Illegitimate, Smearing His Supporters As ‘Violent’

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Screenshot-2024-10-30-at-3.22.41 PM-e1730403851878-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Screenshot-2024-10-30-at-3.22.41%5Cu202fPM-e1730403851878-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Powerful leftists dismissed in advance Trump's potential claims to victory, casting his supporters and election integrity advocates as extremists.

Democrat charged in savage killing of journalist claims he's being framed despite damning evidence to the contrary



Former Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, 47, addressed the jury this week for the first time in the trial over his alleged 2022 murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. Telles complained Wednesday about his imprisonment in the lead-up to the trial and stated, "I want to say, unequivocally, I am innocent, I didn't kill Mr. German."

On Thursday, the disgraced Democrat suggested he'd been framed for killing the very reporter whose investigative writing was tanking his political career, the Review-Journal reported.

German wrote about inappropriate relations, hostilities, and 'turmoil' inside Telles' county office, citing 'allegations of emotional stress, bullying, and favoritism leading to secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outside the office.'

"Somebody framed me for this, and I believe it's Compass Realty," he said.

According to Telles, homes belonging to the recently deceased in Clark County were being flipped for profit, and the families of the deceased were being cut out of the proceeds. The Democrat suggested he was "fighting" Compass Realty and Management over the sales.

The company told the Review-Journal in a statement, "Mr. Telles is a desperate man who has been charged with violently murdering a beloved local journalist. It appears he will do and say anything to escape answering for this charge."

It may be an uphill battle for Telles in court, as his defense likely will need to provide the jury with convincing explanations for why:

  • As reported by the Associated Press, Telles' DNA apparently was found beneath the victim's fingernails;
  • Police found hundreds of photos of the victim's home — along with German's identity records — on Telles' computer and cellphone, some of which were collected only weeks ahead of the slaying;
  • In their search of Telles' house, police found bloody scissors, a cut-up straw hat resembling one the suspect wore, and a pair of cut-up tennis shoes which tested positive for blood;
  • An SUV matching the description of one registered to Telles' wife was seen driving in German's neighborhood around the time of slaying;
  • His phone sent no signals on the day of the killing and why, as KTNV-TV noted, the previous month there was no location data.

What's the background?

German, 69, was stabbed to death outside his home on Sept. 2., 2022. His body, which had seven stab wounds, was discovered the following day.

Police subsequently released video and images of the suspect carrying a bag and wearing a reflective orange shirt and a broad-brimmed hat as well as images of the suspect's alleged vehicle, a maroon GMC Yukon Denali.

Former LVMPD Sheriff Joe Lombardo indicated someone had been seen driving the vehicle "suspiciously" around the neighborhood and confirmed the suspect had used it to leave the area. The vehicle depicted was a maroon GMC Yukon Denali.

Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren later noted that the vehicle was registered to Telles' wife.

On Sept. 7, police executed a search warrant at the Telles' home and towed two vehicles, one of which was the Denali.

After police completed their search, Telles returned home dressed in what was appeared to be a white hazmat suit. When police attempted to speak to him, Telles refused to open the door, prompting the dispatch of a LVPD SWAT team.

The tactical team ultimately made the arrest and carted Telles away on a stretcher following an apparent suicide attempt.

Las Vegas Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said "we are relieved Telles is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official."

Following his arrest, Telles was stripped of his administrator position by court order. In that position, Telles handled the funds of people who died without a will, some of which he is alleged to have mishandled or misappropriated.

Telles — a gun control advocate and an avid supporter of far-left U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — is said to have lost his primary election in June 2022 to fellow Democrat Rita Reid partly because of German's investigative reporting. Reid previously served as the top supervisor under Telles.

German wrote about inappropriate relations, hostilities, and "turmoil" inside Telles' county office, citing "allegations of emotional stress, bullying, and favoritism leading to secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outside the office."

Telles — who was arrested for domestic violence and resisting arrest on March 1, 2020 — blasted German on social media, writing, "You'd think he'd have better things to do."

According to CNN, Telles also responded to German's articles on his campaign site as well as in a letter.

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Former police chief slapped with felony after spearheading controversial raids on Kansas newspaper owner



A former police chief who once apparently professed that his department would be "vindicated" for conducting raids on the home and office of a small-town newspaper owner in Kansas has now been charged with a felony in connection with those raids.

Gideon Cody is the former police chief of Marion, Kansas, a city of fewer than 2,000 residents about 60 miles north of Wichita. A year ago, he led raids on the office of the Marion County Record and the home of its owner, Eric Meyer.

Now, Cody has been charged with felony obstruction of justice in connection with those raids after he allegedly asked a female business owner and potential witness to delete text messages that may have persuaded investigators to believe they had a romantic, rather than strictly professional, relationship.

Last August, Cody secured search warrants from Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar to seize computers, cell phones, digital communications, servers, hard drives, and all documents and records connected with Kari Newell, a Marion resident with a prior DUI conviction who may have previously driven on a suspended license but who nonetheless was trying to get a liquor license for her business, as Blaze News previously reported.

'We want the whole story. We don’t want part of it.'

At the time, Newell slammed Meyer and the Record, claiming that they had uncovered the information about her past through "illegal" means. Meyer admitted that he received a tip about Newell's past but didn't print a story about it because he feared Newell's estranged husband had leaked the information in hopes of sabotaging his wife's efforts to obtain a liquor license.

Newell's information was also a matter of public record, Meyer indicated.

As soon as word about the raids broke, critics from across the country immediately decried the apparent attack on the press protections provided by the First Amendment.

All five members of the Marion Police Department, including Cody, as well as two sheriff's deputies reportedly participated in the raids on the Marion County Record and Meyer's home.

Meyer's 98-year-old mother and co-owner of the Record, Joan Meyer, who was at Meyer's home while officers executed the search warrant, died of a heart attack the day after the raids.

Footage from the raids further showed that Cody apparently seized the opportunity to peek at the files Meyer and his outlet kept about him.

Despite the appearance of impropriety, a statement from Marion PD, issued shortly after the raids and ostensibly written by Cody, insisted the raids would eventually be "vindicated."

Special prosecutors assigned to investigate the incident ultimately disagreed. In a 124-page report released earlier this month, prosecutors instead cleared Meyer, concluding that Meyer had not committed any crime in investigating Newell's past.

Furthermore, prosecutors alleged that Cody conducted an "inadequate investigation" that led him to provide Judge Viar with faulty predicates for the search warrants associated with the raids. However, they stopped short of accusing Cody of deliberately misleading the judge.

Cody, who resigned from the Marion Police Department in October, now faces what KSHB categorized as a "severity level 8 nonperson felony." If convicted, he could serve up to 23 months behind bars, though he has no prior criminal record, making the maximum sentence unlikely.

District Court Judge Ryan Rosauer has been assigned to preside over Cody's case. When Cody is next expected to appear in court is unclear.

And now, Meyer is the one celebrating vindication. "We are gratified that we have finally, officially been vindicated," he told VOA News.

Still, Meyer believes that Cody has been scapegoated for a debacle perpetrated by several officials and agencies. "We want the whole story. We don’t want part of it," Meyer claimed.

"We’re just being basic journalists here."

Meyer has previously filed multiple lawsuits in connection with the raids, including a wrongful death suit, as Blaze News previously reported. He estimated that the damages could exceed $10 million, a seemingly insurmountable sum for a city with an overall annual budget of just $9.5 million.

"The last thing we want is to bankrupt the city or county," Meyer said after filing the first lawsuit back in April, "but we have a duty to democracy and to countless news organizations and citizens nationwide to challenge such malicious and wanton violations of the First and Fourth Amendments and federal laws limiting newsroom searches."

Special prosecutors stated that officers conducting the raids committed no "gross deviation" of protocol regarding executing search warrants.

Blaze News reached out to Meyer and the Record for comment but did not receive a response.

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'This is Canada, not Gaza': Cops drag away conservative reporter for supposedly 'trespassing' in Toronto's public square



A Canadian reporter for one of the northern nation's only conservative media outfits was arrested Sunday and carted away for doing his job faithfully on public property.

Rebel News reporter David Menzies, who local and federal officials appear keen to shut up and lock away, confirmed to Blaze News that he was charged for alleged breach of the peace and trespassing for daring to pose questions to anti-Israel protesters outside Toronto City Hall.

Menzies indicated that he will be suing the Toronto Police Service over this incident just as he is suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for a similarly rough arrest earlier this year.

Background

Thousands of people gathered outside Toronto City Hall on Sunday for "6 Months in Hell," an event centered around demands for the release of those remaining Israeli captives who have suffered at the hands of Islamic terrorists since Hamas waged its unprovoked Oct. 7 attacks on the Jewish nation.

Footage of the event outside Toronto City Hall shows a peaceful crowd waving Canadian and Israeli flags at Nathan Phillips Square while various speakers take the stage, including Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre, the parliamentarian poised to steamroll Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2025 federal election, called on "friends of humanity — Jews, gentiles, people of all backgrounds, Canadians, all people of decency — to stand against the homicidal, genocidal death cult that is Hamas, a death cult that must be destroyed so that we can free the hostages and restore peace for all."

— (@)

Anti-Israel demonstrators flocked to the scene in an apparent effort to counter the anti-terrorist sentiment expressed by Poilievre and others.

Menzies told Blaze News he ventured over "as a journalist in the public square doing public service journalism ... to find out why these people were there trying to crash this event."

"Incredibly, there was a protest of a few dozen people — the pro-Hamas types — which was particularly gross because to me this was like crashing a funeral," Menzies told Blaze News. "They're spouting their rhetoric, which by the way includes calls for genocide like, 'from the river to the sea,' and 'intifada.'"

Footage shows a number of the anti-Israel protesters crowding Menzies outside Toronto City Hall as he attempts to conduct impromptu interviews with his phone and microphone in hand. The mob presses the reporter up against a wall, shoving him with flag poles and sneaking in jabs. Other protesters can be seen attempting to block the view of Menzies' cameraman with flags and placards.

Menzies indicated that police looked on as protesters not only assaulted him but illegally used amplifying devices to push their vitriol and drown out calls for the hostages' releases.

A masked Toronto Police Service officer can finally be seen swooping in, grabbing Menzies, and separating him from the crowd.

Menzies tells the officer, "They can chant genocide in the street, and I can't cover that? Obey your oath. Officer, obey your oath."

The TPS officer can be seen grabbing Menzies' wrist and tossing his camera onto the ground. Additional cops crew around as the officer handcuffs the reporter, then carts him away.

The arresting officer announces Menzies was "under arrest for refusing to leave [the] premises."

"It's a public place!" responds Menzies in an apparent state of disbelief. "This is literally the public square."

The officer begins to explain his actions, but Menzies interrupts, noting, "They assaulted me and you did nothing."

The police drag him over to a van, ostensibly banging Menzies' head against the rear door before tossing him inside.

Rebel News subsequently indicated that Menzies suffered a cut on his head from when the officers "roughly threw David into the back of a police truck, knocking his head against the roof. They also tightly forced his shoulders back, deeply aggravating a previous injury."

Menzies told Blaze News that "in the department of perverse irony," he was ultimately held at TPS 52 Division, one block away from the Art Gallery of Ontario where "pro-Hamas" protesters shut down a reception between Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The reporter found some dark humor in the notion that whereas he sat in holding for asking questions on public property, the radicals "got away with shutting that down."

BREAKING: David Menzies has been arrested for reporting on the anti-Israel counter protest against the rally for the remaining hostages detained by Hamas on October 7th. \n\nhttps://t.co/VGU2262Brn to help his legal fight. Updates to follow.
— (@)

When speaking to Menzies hours after his release, Ezra Levant, the publisher of Rebel News, surmised the police had gone after the reporter because it would have alternatively required more effort to deal with the actual aggressors.

"They took the coward's way out, which is, 'If we try and arrest this mob of Hamas hate marchers, they're going to get handsy with us. But we know Menzies won't, so let's take him out,'" said Levant.

Menzies told Blaze News, "Bottom line, right now in Toronto — and I would argue in other cities around the world, Western democracies — law enforcement is now about, not enforcing the law, but keeping the peace. Keeping the peace means bending the knee to the violent mob. 'If keeping the peace means arresting an independent journalist for potentially asking insensitive questions to the mob, then so be it.'"

The Canadian reporter suggested that this style of policing is prompting the mob to become "more and more emboldened," noting that among the anti-Israel radicals proudly demonstrating Sunday was a woman who allegedly speared a police horse last month but was evidently spared jail time.

Levant suggested that the TPS has a "personal vendetta" against Menzies.

After all, Menzies has repeatedly been targeted for abuse while working for Rebel News, one of the few media outfits in Canada that does not receive funding from the Trudeau government.

He was allegedly assaulted by Trudeau's bodyguards in 2021; roughed up by an RCMP officer, then carted away by York Regional Police after asking Trudeau's deputy minister questions in January; and arrested by Toronto Police officers last month for asking questions of pro-Palestinian protesters nearby an event featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

How bad is it in Canada?\n\nRebel News reporter David Menzies (@TheMenzoid) was "arrested for assault" for asking Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland questions.\n\nYou can clearly see David did not "assault" Freeland. It's arguable that never even made physical contact.\n\nWorse yet, Justin\u2026
— (@)

Blaze News previously reported that the apparent antipathy for the conservative outlet is shared by more than just city officials. Trudeau and his Liberal Party have denied Rebel News accreditation to cover political debates; accused its reporters of spreading vaccine misinformation; and suggested it was increasing polarization in the country amid draconian COVID lockdowns.

"That's Toronto police showing total cowardice towards actual criminal gangs but abusing and punishing a peaceful journalist," wrote the publisher. "I'm sick of it. We're going to defend against the bogus charges today. But when those charges are thrown out, we're not done."

When vowing to sue the Toronto Police, Levant indicated his aim would be "to teach them that they just aren't allowed to beat up Canadian journalists. This is Canada, not Gaza."

Menzies indicated they also filed a lawsuit last month over the Freeland incident, which they will use as the "template" for two suits against the TPS, one for the incident last month and another for the arrest Sunday.

Blaze News reached out to the Toronto Police Service and Pierre Poilievre for comment but did not receive replies by deadline.

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BREAKING: David Menzies Released From Jail | Police Smashed His Headyoutu.be

Steve Baker and the high five that wasn't



If we had to choose a single moment that captures just how serious and sober-minded Steve Baker was about covering the events of January 6 — and there are many to choose from — the high five that wasn’t would be illustrative.

Right there, in the CCTV footage of Baker’s snoozer of a day in the Capitol, is the benign offer of a high five to Steve — from someone I assume to be an enthusiastic Trump supporter. The gesture was offered to Baker as he calmly entered the premises ... through an already opened door, for the record.

In the perverse minds of a Washington, D.C., jury, the high five would’ve been worth an extra 10 years.

(At time of publication, we’re not sure whether the New York Times reporter who slithered through a broken window was offered a high five, or a middle finger, or whether he reciprocated. Of course, we haven’t seen the Times reporter in leg irons, either.)

Clearly laser-focused on a journalistic mission, Baker did not respond. The guy offering the high five probably thought, “What a jerk.” Baker is not MAGA by any means, and neither am I, but I cannot imagine myself not returning the gesture purely out of rote. High five? Sure, why not? Boom. We’ve all returned such gestures just out of our American bonhomie and polite nature. Kind of second-nature stuff, not a political statement.

It’s as if God whispered to Steve, “Don’t do it, or they’ll give you a blindfold and a cigarette after a show trial.”

And the feds would like to do just that. The charges trumped up against him, after all, are knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

You know, the kind of stuff that earns Black Lives Matter and Antifa accolades and no jail time.

A reciprocated hand slap, in the self-righteous “good German” stance of federal prosecutors, would certainly lend credence and multiplying malignancy to all those charges. In the perverse minds of a Washington, D.C., jury — you know, the kind that Democrat lawfare expert Marc Elias openly brags about — the high five would’ve been worth an extra 10 years.

"See, Steve is really MAGA. That high five is his dog whistle! INSHURRREKSHUN! Get the rope!"

Now, taken alone, these few seconds mean nothing. In context, however, perhaps they mean everything. And the proper context is that Steve Baker was a single-minded person intent on covering the events of January 6, wherever they took him.

Why so laser-focused?

In the big picture, he was absorbed in a later life reinvention, given that COVID-19 had destroyed six streams of income in various aspects of live music. The elitist jack***es at NBC thought it would be a flex to expose Baker, among other things, as playing David Bowie in the tribute band the American Bowie Experience.

Well, ground control to Major Tom, so what?

Steve is more interesting and talented than you are. What’s your point, NBC? He’d still be doing Bowie if the world wasn’t stopped due to the Wu flu — in no small measure due to the propaganda from your outlet and other like-minded apparatchiks of the state.

As it happens, Steve’s band was on the verge of the big time. He also managed and played in four other event bands and was involved with some Nashville act management. Not everybody can do that. Not many people can do any of this, let alone all of it.

Steve can, and he has.

The point is that Steve really was very seriously reinventing his career as a journalist, ironically a move made necessary thanks to the same absurd COVID policies that the media supported so enthusiastically. He and I discussed all of this often over sushi and single malt, with a liberal sprinkling of the consonant F in a sexual verb we all now use as an adverb of irritation.

And it isn’t like he wasn’t writing prior to January 6. He had been on Facebook and Twitter for years and was published at American Thinker going back to 2013. He has a lot of not-so-friendly words about Trump in that writing history, too. He’s a longtime libertarian, and he’s fed up with all parties, including the Libertarian Party.

To reinvent oneself is not easy. To do so at 60 is extremely difficult. Steve was embarking on that frightening journey on January 6 out of necessity. At 60, he wasn’t playing around. He wasn’t tiptoeing into this new venture. He was very serious.

After observing the Oath Keepers' trials, something that “real journalists” refused to do, Steve became even more passionate about getting to the bottom of the story. And so impressed were they with his steadfastness and acumen, a dream team of Oath Keepers’ attorneys have rushed to Steve’s defense. None of them will take a dime for doing so.

That’s the Steve Baker I know: meticulous, dedicated, and intelligent enough to inspire a whole team of attorneys to help him. Seriously, cogitate on that for just a minute. This is not normal. And Glenn Beck called him one of the nicest, gentlest souls he’s ever met. For the record, no one ever ascribed such to me.

It’s no surprise to me he’s a natural as a reporter. He’s the son of a private investigator on top of everything else. And it follows naturally that Blaze Media and all these attorneys have rallied around him. It’s predictable the feds fear what he can disclose, too.

He is fearless, intelligent, diligent, and methodical, and having a 40-year music career ruined broke his “give-a-damn.” He’s not going away. He won't back down. He won’t even be distracted by a high five. What a jerk.

Exspiravit Scriptor is the nom de plume of a political ghost writer, author, satirist, and longtime friend of Steve Baker.

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