TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — A Tallahassee man has been arrested for his role for attempting to incite violence at the Florida Capitol this Sunday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Florida arrested Daniel Baker of Tallahassee for transmission, in interstate commerce, of communication containing a threat to kidnap or to injure.
They said Baker issued a "call to arms for like-minded individuals to violently confront protestors gathered at the Florida Capitol this Sunday."
"He specifically called for others to join him in encircling any protestors and confining them at the Capitol complex using firearms," the release read.
“Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,” Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, said. “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.”
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Baker without incident early Friday morning with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Tallahassee Police Department.
The FBI was first notified that Baker was threatening the use of violence in the U.S. on October 8, 2020 and said he was using social media to "recruit and train like-minded individuals in furtherance of his Anti-Govemment or Anti-Authority Violent Exhemism Ideology."
Officials said Baker, a former U.S. Army Airborne infrantryman who was kicked out of the service, had been posting "his belief in violent tactics" on social media recently and specifically expressed an intent to violently disrupt protests occurring between now and Inauguration Day next Wednesday, January 20, and was actively recruiting others to join him.
Baker, who officials said actively participated in multiple protests throughout the U.S. last summer, is accused of using his social media as a way to promote, encourage, and educate his followers on "how to incapacitate and debilitate law enforcement officers."
A criminal complaint document said that Baker has also "made multiple threats to those who he claims to be white supremacists, has promoted the killing of United States military officers."
“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 said. “
He will make his initial appearance virtually Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the U.S. Courthouse before Magistrate Judge Charles A. Stampelos.
To report information, or suspicious activity, contact local law enforcement, the FBI at 1-800- CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or 911 in case of emergency.
You can read the full criminal complaint against Baker below or at this link.
