Legal expert: First amendment claim unlikely to protect Durham man from charges for entering US Capitol during Jan. 6 riot

On Jan. 6, hundreds of people flooded past police at the U.S. Capitol. So far, more than 700 of them have been charged with a crime, and charges are filed against more people seemingly every day.

"It's a romantic notion this is the 'people's house,' and certainly it does the people's business, but that doesn't mean it's accessible to everyone at all times," said Ken Paulson, who is the head of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.

Steve Baker, of Durham, was among that crowd. He describes himself as an "independent journalist," and he has a history of writing conservative political commentary on various social media platforms, including some paid sites, under the moniker "The Pragmatic Constitutionalist."

But freedom of the press does not apply to his actions on Jan. 6, Paulson said.

Baker, who recorded the protest and siege that day, told WRAL News, "Suddenly there was this free flow of humanity going up those steps. So that was taking place, and, doing what I think any journalist would do, he would follow the story to where the story was headed."

Paulson pointed out that journalists of all stripes must follow the law. "It's just another job that's governed by the laws of the United States," he said, pointing out that Paulson had no press credentials to be in the Capitol and thus can be charged trespassing.

Federal prosecutors also hint they may charge Baker with interstate racketeering because he sold his video from that day. Paulson thinks that charge is a legal reach. "First of all, the government probably has a right to seize it and go and look at it, but they don't have a right to keep you from distributing it and sharing it. That's just part of the First Amendment," he said.

In his first local interview about that day, Baker told WRAL Investigates he was witnessing history. “It was a cultural phenomenon in its own right,” he said.

Nine months later, FBI agents contacted Baker.

Baker announced to his thousands of followers he would attend the Jan. 6 Trump rally to see if rumors of real election fraud evidence might finally emerge. He says clearly, that didn’t happen. “It was the biggest nothing burger maybe in the history of all rallies,” he said.

Baker recorded video for hours as the frustrated crowd streamed from the National Mall to the Capitol. He says that’s where things got ugly, “and I continued to document that video until it got too violent for me where I was,” he said.

Baker argues that as a self-described independent journalist, he followed the story. WRAL Investigates asked Baker why he decided to follow the crowd inside. He says, at the time, he didn’t feel like it was crime to go in and observe.

Baker acknowledges some in the crowd came to do violence and damage. He got a peek inside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ransacked office.

“Did they want the election overturned? Yea, but there’s no crime in that,” he explained.

WRAL Investigates asked Baker if he, at any time, thought what he was doing was illegal.

When WRAL Investigates asked him if he approved of everything that happened that day in and around the Capitol, his answer was much different. “Oh, no. Absolutely not,” he said.