Anthime/Time "Baked Alaska" Gionet was set to accept a plea deal regarding his video taped tresspassing at the Capitol in D.C. January 6th 2020. Previously Gionet had explained in interview with Milo Yiannopoulos that as part of his plea deal he would be forced to cooperate with authorities in exchange for having felony charges dropped to
misdemeanor charges of parading, demonstrating or picketing inside a Capitol building.
At the last minute, however,
the former Buzzfeed journalist, turned Alt-Right,
turned "reformed liberal" turned
America First supporter decided to protest his innocence thus resulting in the plea deal being taken off the table. The judge has set a trial date for Gionet March of 2023. Unlike several others charged for their part in the mass tresspassing incident inside the halls of Congress on January 6th, Gionet managed to stay out of jail in the interim period.
For now, however, things are still somewhat up in the air. U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi spoke with Gionet's lawyers and they are making the plea deal available for 60 days. So Baked now has until July 22nd to decide whether or not to take the plea or not. The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor charges would have been six months in prison.
Baked Alaska's surprising outburst in court had him claiming that prosecutors wanted to "hit" him with further felony charges. "So I think this is probably the better route," he told the court.
The judge asked if he was pleading guilty because he was indeed guilty at which point the streamer proclaimed his innocence at which point the judge informed him he can't accept a guilty plea if he is claiming innocence. According to U.S. Attorney Aloi, the claims regarding additional felony charges are unfounded.
The judge, Emmett Sullivan, has strongly denounced the January 6th invasion of the Capitol wondering how many "law abiding Americans" had "morphed into terrorists" that day. In a strange turn of events, earlier this year, Gionet's mother attempted to sue Nancy Pelosi "trying to shield her son's communications because her son was on the family plan."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-nixes-jan-6-plea-right-wing-streamer-baked-alaska-declares-innoc-rcna28245
"We did say that the case would continue to be investigated and where the facts led is where the charges would ultimately lead," Aloi reported. Baked Alaska's legal team are claiming that he was merely there to "document" the happenings, however, the video evidence of his raucous visit to D.C. seems to clearly contradict this.
Infowars host Owen Shroyer has also claimed that he was merely there in the capacity of a journalist and has asked a judge to throw out the charges of rioting, citing First Amendment right to "protest, speak freely and report the news." Of course, protesting, picketing and boycotting are enshrined in the Bill of Rights, but this right in no way makes it legal to tresspass.
Ironically several others were charged thanks to Gionet's ubiquitous livestream camera running the whole time he was gallivanting through the halls of Congress. His arrest over the January 6th event came shortly after he had been sentenced to 30 days in jail over a misdemeanor related to pepper spraying an employee at a Scottsdale, Arizona bar.
Out of the almost 800 charged with federal crimes over January 6th, 280 have since pleaded guilty, many of them to misdemeanors and 170 have been sentenced with another 100 awaiting their trial dates. Potentially, if he had planned ahead with his counsel, Gionet might have offered a
plea of no-contest as some others charged over the storming of the Capitol building.
Despite the fact that
federal trials have over 99% conviction rate, Baked has been celebrating his purported "total victory" on livestream.
SNITCHED Alaska