Tag: Judge Christopher Cooper

Reporter Steve Baker Enters Guilty Plea in January 6 Case to ‘Avoid Shaming Exercise of a Trial’

Tom Pappert
Journalist Steve Baker

Reporter and January 6 defendant Steve Baker entered an Alford plea on Tuesday, acknowledging the state has enough evidence to convict him without admitting guilt, in what he later called a move to avoid the “shaming exercise of a trial.”

Then working as an independent journalist, Baker was inside restricted parts of the U.S. Capitol complex on January 6, 2021. Three years after the protest, he was charged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice for attempting to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory with his presence.

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January 6 Defendant Receives First Reduced Sentence After Supreme Court Ruling

Just the News
January Six Protest

A former Virginia police officer on Wednesday became the first January 6 defendant to receive a reduced sentence after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of an obstruction charge used against Jan. 6 rioters.

The Supreme Court in June made it more difficult to charge the defendants with obstruction but charges can still be brought if prosecutors can prove that rioters were intentionally trying to stop the arrival of certificates used to certify electoral votes during the riot.

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