Steve Baker
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
174.49431
Summary
Stevie Baker was a reporter covering a protest in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Fbi) for covering the protest. He was not rioting or attacking police, he was simply covering a story, and the Fbi targeted him as an "insurgentist" and charged him as a criminal for his coverage of the protest in the capitol building. He turned himself in, and now works for The Blaze, a media company that covers the protest, and recounts his experience with the so-called justice system and the way he's been treated by it ever since then. This episode is brought to you by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of journalists and their families. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/sponsors/OurAdvertisers/Become a supporter today using the promo code "sponsors" to get 10% off your first month with discount code "UPJUDGE" at checkout. Subscribe to our new weekly ad-free version of our new podcast, Upright Citizens Journalism, PODCAST, wherever you get your favorite podcast and listen to our newest episodes of the show "UPPODCAST" Subscribe to "Upward" Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices, tips, tricks, and much more! Subscribe on how to become a supporter of our show, including our new sponsor, Upward Boundless than ever before! . Learn about our new episodes of "UPward" and "upward" in our new ad-friendly and "downwardward Subscribe for a chance to win a chance at a discount of $10,000 in our newest episode of our newest ad-less version of the ultimate podcast, "UP Forthright is coming to you'll get access to all new episodes, plus a discount on our next episode, "upior FREE & FREE and other perks like that, too much more will have access to our latest ad-only so much more? Join us on our new show, plus other ways to support us'll be able to access more like that to join us more like this we'll get a special deal, too " and more!
Transcript
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among the many thousands of americans who came to the capitol building on january 6 2021 were an
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awful lot of journalists working journalists and they were there because among other things it was
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a news story in progress so they went to what we call cover the story and the overwhelming majority
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of them worked for various organs of state media the associated press reuters the new york times
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the washington post nbc news and their job was to bolster whatever the people in charge claim is true
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but there were also some independent journalists there that day one of them was called steve baker
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he now works for the blaze and he was there for the same reason everyone else is there to watch the
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protest play out and to cover it and like so many reporters that day he eventually moved with the
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crowd inside the capitol building and he did so peacefully to cover the story we're not guessing
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about this he did not show up to break windows or poke anyone with a flagpole he was there to cover
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it as a journalist so we have footage of it of baker in the capitol we're going to put it up now you can
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see he's not rioting or attacking police he's standing there watching what's happening around him covering
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the story but because steve baker wasn't wise enough to get a job with the washington post or
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the new york times or any other news outlet that works for the biden administration the fbi singled
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him out not as a reporter which he is but as an insurrectionist and then they charged him with crimes
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for being there the charges include disruptive conduct and restricted building parading demonstrating
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or picketing in the capitol building and they meant it they weren't joking by the way no one defended
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steve baker none of the free press organizations that exist to defend working journalists stood up
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for him or said a word when baker was arrested at the fbi office in dallas here's video of baker
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turning himself in as you can see he was humiliated they cuffed him behind his back not because he posed a
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threat to anyone but because they wanted to make the message crystal clear to everyone else only regime
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media will be treated as legitimate others will be crushed steve baker joins us now to recount his
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experiences with the so-called justice system steve baker thank you so much for coming on hey um so
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thanks for having me of course when last we spoke about a year ago um there were hints this was coming
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i'll just speak for myself as a middle-aged american man i didn't really believe that they could
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arrest a journalist for covering a story they did ultimately as we just showed arrest you
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were you as shocked as i was probably not as shocked because i had been dealing with this for
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about two and a half years i initially had a threat of prosecution going all the way back to november of 21
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when my attorney received a email from an assistant u.s attorney out of philadelphia in which she said
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your client meaning me with is going to be arrested or is going to be charged within the week
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and so after we did a bit of a uh a bit of a media pushback kind of an offensive against that threat
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then we didn't hear from them again for 20 months now after 20 months i was starting to feel pretty
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good about it during that interim time i actually spoke with you and then uh in august of last year
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uh we received a grand jury subpoena my attorney calls me back says all right we've got a grand
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jury subpoena for your work your actual videos that you took on january 6th we complied uh yet again
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and uh then we didn't hear from them for another four months well during this time i'm now working for
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the blaze and so i was actually in dc as a matter of fact i was sitting in uh representative thomas
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massey's office on december 14th just this past uh december and i i get a text from my attorney
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which is never a welcome thing an unsolicited text from your attorney which he said i think this is
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the one the big one so i stepped out into the hallway there at the rayburn building and called
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my attorney and he said they want you to self-surrender next week in my hometown of raleigh north carolina
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so uh the blaze went into high gear we did another media offensive had millions of views of this
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uh the story that we were telling about me having to self-surrender and they backed off yet again
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they we got another call the next day from the fbi saying that they were going to put that off until
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sometime after christmas once again we didn't hear from them for two months until two weeks ago we got
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the notice that i was going to have to self-surrender this time and this time it was for real they
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actually said that it was only going to be for misdemeanor charges the four basic misdemeanors
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that all the low level january 6 offenders get uh and because i'm happen to be working here in dallas
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right now where blaze is headquarters we decided to go ahead and do my self-surrender here at the fbi
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field office so they didn't raid me they didn't come out to my hotel or to the blaze studios
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uh we went down to the fbi field office and submitted myself uh the interesting thing tucker
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is that in the notice from the assistant u.s attorney to my my lead attorney is that they
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wanted me to show up at the field office and i quote wearing shorts t-shirt and flip-flops
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and i knew what that meant that meant that they were probably going to change me into the orange
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jumpsuit and that i would then be leg shackled because the plan was for the fbi to process me
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there at the the field office put me in a car take me downtown to the courthouse where they would hand
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me over to the u.s marshals and then i would wait in a cell until i was marched before the magistrate in
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front of the um uh the in front of the whole court and so what ended up taking place is that
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my attorney negotiated with the two fbi agents in advance of me surrendering i did not have to get
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into an orange jumpsuit i showed up with a jacket tie slacks dress shoes they made me take off my
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shoelaces my belt my tie and then hand my jacket over to my attorney uh then they took me they allowed
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me to wear my own shirt my own trousers uh they handcuffed me fingerprinted me marched me out to
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the car which has been seen on camera took me to took me to the courthouse handed me over to the u.s
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marshals and that's where they put the leg chains the belt chain belted my wrist uh chained my wrist to my
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stomach and then sat me in a jail cell with a meth dealer
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tucker says it best the credit card companies are ripping americans off and enough is enough
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this is senator roger marshall of kansas our legislation the credit card competition act
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would help in the grip visa and mastercard have on us every time you use your credit card they charge
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you a hidden fee called a swipe fee and they've been raising it without even telling you this hurts
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consumers and every small business owner in fact american families are paying eleven hundred dollars
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in hidden swipe fees each year the fees visa and mastercard charge americans are the highest in the
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world double candidates and eight times more than europe's that's why i've taken action but i need your
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help to help get this passed i'm asking you to call your senator today and demand they pass the credit
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it's hard to believe any of that's real a couple of questions one what's the name of the assistant
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u.s attorney who did this adam dreher out of dc yeah adam dreher i hope becomes famous it's not a
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threat but i think we deserve to know who is doing this i mean the state of texas has more than a
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million uh illegal invaders in it right now um there are also an awful lot of murders in the state
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of texas and so this is what they're spending their time doing i have to ask did any of the fbi agents we
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always hear that you know the line agents are good guys any of the u.s marshals say to you you know
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i'm embarrassed that i'm chaining you uh to you know chaining you to your own stomach on a misdemeanor
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charge for something that isn't actually a crime did anyone betray any acknowledgement that this is
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like all a farce the the two agents that processed me did not do that i have received messages from
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retired whistleblowing uh agents all over the country apologizing to me for the behavior of the
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uh the once the agency they were once proud of i will tell you that while they were patting me down
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and going through the process uh i did chat with them and i asked them point blank i said so how often
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do you do this to misdemeanor defendants uh the first time there was a little bit of mumbling
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and then i kind of reiterated i said is this is it is it normal or do you get you do in process
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misdemeanor defendants on a regular basis as they're patting me down uh they went they were
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dead silent and of course that's because we know the answer tucker yeah how about how about speak up
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son i pay your salary like how dare you treat me this way as an american citizen seriously they didn't
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answer your question yeah in the hundred year yeah in the hundred year history of that agency
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hundred plus year history of that they never processed misdemeanor defendants of any kind
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particularly non-violent misdemeanor defendants uh it's that's not what they do i mean every single
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fbi agent will tell you that when they joined the the uh the agency they were told that they were
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they were on this uh planet and in this country to go after the whales not the tiny little minnows
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but why don't they quit that's what i don't understand i mean i i've always respected law
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enforcement on principle and fbi agents i guess on principle but if you're participating in a system
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that's just political tyranny which is what it is it's not a it's not there's nothing justice related
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about any of this it's joe biden putting his critics behind bars how can you live with yourself
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like isn't at a certain point at their responsibility too i've been analyzing that the answer to that
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question for quite some time now and the only answer i have is that we're now into a generation
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of special agents and even special agents in charge that came in after the patriot act that came in during
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the obama administration that came in after the politicization was overwhelming at the top in
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the leadership and in fact now the you know in most of the field offices those in charge are are political
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operatives by by and large tucker and so that's the answer now we'll tell you this when i got to the
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courthouse one of the uh u.s marshals processing me down there he actually looked at my paperwork and he
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said point blank this is bullshit yeah and he's right he's right and good for him yeah and i said
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yeah and then he said and he said i will tell you what else is bullshit he said we process a lot of
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these he said you guys you know you j6ers and he said i think that uh former president trump should be
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paying for every one of your legal fees i agree with that too i i do agree with that yeah and i think
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it's yeah i strongly agree with that um so yeah i mean i think you should be afraid to behave like
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this if you're an fbi agent um i think you should be afraid of it you can't act like that toward your
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fellow citizens and you can't be the instrument of political tyranny and get away with it um so did
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anyone is there anyone to appeal to so you you work with glenn beck who is really taken up and good
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for him he's a good man your your cause but did anyone with official power step in to try and help
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you uh no one with official power i mean we've had quite a few people speak out on my behalf uh we've
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had some congressmen speak out on my behalf we've had uh current presidential uh uh nominee or uh nominee
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apparent as well as those a couple of others that were running ramaswamy uh desantis and then in
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addition to that we've had a host of other friendly media but as you can probably surmise
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and as you obviously stated earlier nobody from the mainstream media has come forward yet and said
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hey you know we probably better stick up for this guy even though he's not necessarily one of us
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because pendulum swing right and more important more importantly tucker pen whether the pendulum
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swings or not if it continues to swing far into the tyrannical left they purge themselves eventually
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if you've read a history book they will take out the factions of the factions first yes well but such
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a thing as principle exists i mean some things are just wrong because they're wrong racial discrimination
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putting people in prison because you don't like their political views these are just wrong it doesn't
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matter who they're happening to they're just they're just wrong uh on their own terms um did it ever
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did part of you think well maybe i just won't participate you know i've spent my whole life in
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this country paid taxes believed in the system this is not justice this is not the justice system
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this is a tool of political repression and maybe you just say come and get me i'm not i'm not well
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playing along well for for two and a half years yeah for two and a half years i didn't have to set my
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alarm clock because every morning at six o'clock i would wake up because i've been following these cases
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i've been following these trials i've followed hundreds of these cases there's over thirteen
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hundred and fifty of these arrests so far uh all manner of defendants for uh january 6 most of them
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of course are non-violent and i've been following these cases and believe it or not many i mean far far
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too many to even uh recount of the simple misdemeanor uh defendants including other independent
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journalists have been swat raided at their home some of them have been imprisoned and did nothing
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more than walk around in the capital with a big camera rig no painting parading no picketing no
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chanting usa usa or anything else of the nature and um they they did their job professionally and when
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they got back home they were swat raided by 20 agents with the red dots on their chest and on their
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wife and on their children and then hauled off uh convicted sent to prison for months independent
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journalists it's beyond it's so what happens next in your case uh i have uh in two days i have a dc
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hearing it's uh it's one that i can do by zoom uh it's simply not much more than a repeat of what we
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did in dallas because this was an out of district hearing so now i've got to do it before a dc
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magistrate so it's a magistrate so it's just basically the same thing without the leg change this time
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and then we start the process of our strategy uh with my with my legal team to determine how we're
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going to proceed and part of that process was learning who our judge was and that's pretty
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interesting i'm revealing that to you for the first time uh judge christopher cooper is also the exact
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same judge who held uh katherine harridge in contempt two weeks ago yeah i'm very aware of that it's
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unbelievable steve baker i appreciate your taking the time to update us on what has happened to you
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again it's tyranny i know you know that but it's shocking to see it good luck