A right-wing internet personality who live-streamed himself storming the Capitol was set to plead guilty to a federal charge as part of a plea deal, but the deal went up in smoke after he declared himself innocent.
Anthime Joseph Gionet, otherwise known as "Baked Alaska," said he had only agreed to take the deal because he was worried he’d be charged with a felony.WASHINGTON — A right-wing internet personality who live-streamed himself storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was set to plead guilty to a federal charge on Wednesday as part of a plea deal reached with federal prosecutors, but the plea deal went up in smoke after he declared himself innocent.
Anthime Joseph Gionet, also known as “Baked Alaska," was set to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count in which would admit he"willfully and knowingly paraded, demonstrated, and picketed" inside the Capitol. Gionet was charged just one day after the Capitol attack and arrested in Jan. 2021, and originally faced charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
But the deal went out the window at a hearing on Wednesday after Judge Emmet G. Sullivan asked Gionet whether he was pleading guilty because he was, in fact, guilty. "I wanted to go to trial, but the prosecutors if I [went] to trial they would put a felony on me, so I think this is probably the better route," Gionet said."I believe I'm innocent... but they're saying if I go to trial they're going to hit me with a felony.""If Mr. Gionet wants to go to trial, he'll get a fair trial, like anyone and everyone else who has appeared before me, regardless of the charges," Sullivan said.
More than 285 people have pleaded guilty in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and nearly 800 individuals have been charged. As
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