FBI accuses Florida veteran of plotting armed confrontation of protesters at State Capitol

TALLAHASSEE, Fla .– The FBI arrested a Florida military veteran on Friday for conspiring to violently disrupt protests on the State Capitol ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

Daniel Baker, 33, wanted to surround protesters at the State Capitol and confine them with guns, U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe and the FBI said. Baker, a former US Army infantryman who was expelled from service in 2007, issued a “call to arms” asking others to join him on Sunday, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court . Armed protests against the election results are scheduled in all 50 state capitals this weekend.

“This is an armed STROKE and can only be stopped by an armed community!” Baker wrote in a leaflet posted online, according to the complaint. “If you are afraid of dying fighting the enemy, stay in bed and live.”

The allegations: Baker, who lives in Tallahassee, had been working in recent days to identify rioters who joined the insurgency on the U.S. Capitol last week, according to the complaint. “You better hope the cops find you before we do, because I believe in torturing prisoners to get information,” he wrote in an article, the FBI said. “You better turn away because we don’t mean to involve the cops.”

Baker, previously featured in a Vice News documentary, can be seen in You Tube videos with a variety of guns, including those with major magazines. He traveled across the United States in 2020 to participate in numerous protests, including joining the self-proclaimed Autonomous Zone in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, according to the complaint.

In 2017, Baker joined the People’s Protection Units, a group fighting in Syria against ISIS and the Turkish government. The People’s Protection Units are referred to by the US government as a “foreign terrorist organization”.

The arrest: Baker was arrested Friday morning without incident with the help of Tallahassee Police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He was accused of having transmitted an interstate communication “containing a threat to kidnap any person or to injure the person of another”.

“Violent extremists on both sides of the political and social spectrum must be stopped, and they will be,” Keefe said in a statement. “We will not stop in our efforts to detect, deter and disrupt anyone who considers inciting or committing violence.”

And after: In a statement Friday, Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey urged Governor Ron DeSantis to deploy National Guard troops to the city this weekend, saying: “We cannot risk being under-prepared for the potential threat posed by those who wish to attack the citadel of democracy in our state. and who may have been emboldened by the events of the past week.

“I hope we don’t experience any violence in the capital this weekend or next week, but hope is not a plan so we have to stay vigilant and prepared,” Dailey said.

Tallahassee City Hall and Leon County Courthouse will be closed next week until the opening day due to concerns about possible violence related to the inauguration. State legislative leaders told members of the House and Senate and their aides to avoid the State Capitol on Sunday. DeSantis said violent protests would not be tolerated.

“If something is messy, we will act very quickly,” the Republican governor said earlier this week. “If there’s any mess, we’ll have the reinforcements there.