Federal law enforcement officials arrested a self-proclaimed “hardcore leftist” who had reportedly made a series of calls for violence ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Daniel Baker of Tallahassee, Florida, was arrested regarding the alleged transmission, in interstate commerce, of a communication containing a threat to kidnap or to injure early Friday morning without incident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Florida announced.
He had purportedly issued calls for people to confront any protesters who would gather at the state capitol on Sunday with violence, specifically mentioning firearms.
Baker, who apparently had a history of expressing his belief in violent tactics, had reputedly ramped up his rhetoric on social media in recent weeks. The former U.S. Army Airborne infantryman promoted his plan to disrupt protests violently before Biden gets sworn into office, according to the Justice Department.
A lengthy criminal affidavit written by an FBI special agent detailed some of the threats allegedly made by Baker in the wake of the Capitol siege that left five dead, including a Capitol police officer, and had led to dozens of arrests, with Baker expressing anger toward the police as well as toward Trump supporters.
A Facebook event page created by Baker on Tuesday titled “Defend Tallahassee” laid out an apparent plan by Baker to try to confront, encircle, and trap any pro-Trump activists who showed up to protest at the Florida Capitol on Sunday.
Baker’s Facebook post claimed: “Armed racist mobs have planted the Confederate flag in the nations Capitol while announcing their plans to storm every American state Csapitol on or around Inauguration Day. We will fight back. We will circle the state Capitol and let them fight the cops and take the building. Then we will encircle them and trap them inside. We will drive them out of Tallahassee with every caliber available.”
The post further stated, “They are staging an armed takeover so only an armed community can stop them!,” and that “we have already recruited an army armed combat veterans and volunteers.” He told people not to RSVP to the event but to “JUST SHOW UP. WE ARE CHAOTIC MAELSTROM OF WILLING HANDS.” He said that his plan involved “militant friends” using “all sorts of wheeled vehicles” to “encircle them so they cannot escape” and claimed that they would “corral the Trump terrorists into the Capitol building.”
“DO NOT HELP COPS OR THE ENEMY!” it continued. “REMEMBER THAT THE COPS WON’T PROTECT US BECAUSE THE COPS AND KLAN GO HAND IN HAND!”
It concluded, “If you are afraid to die fighting the enemy, then stay in bed and live. Call all of your friends and Rise Up!”
“Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,” said Lawrence Keefe, a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida. “The diligent work in this case by the FBI and other public safety organizations has averted a crisis with this arrest, and we will not stop in our efforts to detect, deter, and disrupt anyone else planning to incite or commit violence.”
He traveled to Seattle to join the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest/Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone movement during the summer of 2020. Also known as CHOP (and later on as CHAZ), it was a weekslong, self-declared autonomous zone in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of the city in Washington state, according to WCTV, a local news outlet.
Baker was mentioned in an October article in which he identified himself as a “hardcore leftist,” and he said he traveled to CHOP in Seattle to participate in the “revolution,” according to the affidavit. He also made threats to people who he believed were white supremacists and fascists, it stated.
“I told them, if they really wanted a revolution, we needed to get AK’s and start making bombs. No one listened to me,” he’s quoted as saying in an independent review of CHOP in Seattle.
He had publicly been saying on social media in the days leading up to the arrest that he wanted to purchase additional firearms.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Thursday about possible violence in the lead-up to Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
“We are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter, is the best way I would describe it, about a number of events surrounding the inauguration. And together with our partners, we evaluate those threats and what kind of resources to deploy against them. Right now, we’re tracking calls for potential armed protests and activity leading up to the inauguration,” Wray said. “And the reason I use the word ‘potential’ is because one of the real challenges in this space is trying to distinguish what’s aspirational versus what’s intentional. We’re concerned about the potential for violence at multiple protests and rallies planned here in D.C. and at multiple state capitol buildings around the country in the days to come that could bring armed individuals within close proximity to government buildings and officials.”
Baker’s YouTube page, which is viewable online, contains videos from recent days with titles such as “why we kill all nazi scum on their friends” and “help George Soros id these terrorists.”
In the description of a Jan. 8 video that is apparently from his account, he wrote: “I have acquired a sponsor (Soros, you know, the antifa card was finally approved) and I and my donors will be offering cash rewards for information leading to the verified identification of an and every individual in this video. Don’t worry, I wont [sic] ne [sic] going to the cops. We have decided to handle this ourselves because the dc cops let them in and all cops are infiltrated. There will be no faith in law enforcement until every single department is shut down and replaced by new faces.” Baker later commented: “Yall better hope the cops find you before we do cuz I believe in torturing prisoners for information. Yall better tum yourselves in cuz we dont intend to involve the cops.” He posted a video on Jan. 9 titled “help us id the cops who let terrorists in” and claimed that “these cops let terrorists into the Capitol building. I will send money to anyone who provides me with verifiable intel that can id these traitors.”
Baker wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, “Holy f—ing shit my ban is over. Yall. So much has happened. Death to amerikka of course, f— the president, current and elect.”
The FBI agent said that Baker also changed his profile picture to him holding a Kalashnikov pattern rifle and wearing a sweatshirt honoring Rob Grodt. Grodt was an American anarchist who was killed fighting for the People’s Protection Units (also known as the YPG), a group battling against the Islamic State and the Turkish government in Syria. The bureau says Baker “also changed his cover picture to several soldiers posing behind YPG and Antifa (Antifascist Action) flags holding more AK-47 style rifles” and posted, ”Aw, it’s yalls [sic] first civil war!”
“In these perilous times, we are steadfastly committed to being as transparent as possible about the work your government does to protect public safety and uphold the rule of law,” the Florida federal prosecutor said on Friday. “While extremists who plan mayhem may skulk in the shadows, it’s important that we force them into the light and bring them to justice.”
Baker went AWOL on his Army unit before it was set to deploy to Iraq about a year after he joined the military, according to the Justice Department.
In 2017, he traveled overseas to join the YPG, the department stated. The group is an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is a United States-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. He has claimed that he’s a trained sniper.
“This arrest serves as a message to anyone who intends to incite or commit violence in the Northern District of Florida: If you represent a threat to public safety, we will come for you, we will find you, and we will prosecute you,” Keefe added. “Daniel Baker’s actions show that he is a dangerous extremist, and the law-abiding public is safer now that he has been arrested. We are, and will remain, on high alert and will take all appropriate actions against credible threats to the people of our District.”
Government and law enforcement officials are on high alert ahead of Biden’s inauguration, an event that will take place on Wednesday. A group of the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week as Congress sought to certify Biden’s victory, and it led to five deaths and dozens of arrests. There has been chatter of additional riots set to happen nationwide in the days leading up to the inauguration.
An internal FBI bulletin is reportedly warning that armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols in the U.S. and the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in the lead-up to the inauguration.
