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OPINION

Can We Save Ourselves from Our Constitutional Crisis on Nov. 5?

Can We Save Ourselves from Our Constitutional Crisis on Nov. 5?

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Michael Dorstewitz By Monday, 04 March 2024 09:33 AM EST Current | Bio | Archive

The Justice Department has become increasingly politicized.

But if you report the truth about this and provide evidence to support it, it could land you in jail. And that just gives further proof of how political, and by extension how corrupt, it’s become.

The most recent example happened Friday, when Steve Baker, a media reporter for The Blaze, was asked to surrender to FBI offices in Dallas, Texas, in answer to an arrest warrant.

Although he fully and peacefully complied, agents still made him perform the "perp walk of shame" for media cameras with his hands cuffed behind his back, as he headed to the federal courthouse accompanied by two agents.

When they arrived for Baker’s arraignment, the handcuffs were replaced with wrist and leg shackles.

"I don't like the deliberate humiliation they put me through," Baker said. "There was no reason to do that. There was no reason to march me into a courtroom in leg chains today."

So what was Baker charged with to warrant all this enhanced security?

Murder?

Espionage?

Arms trafficking?

Nope.

He was charged with four misdemeanors related to his reporting of the rioting on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, specifically:

  • Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority;
  • Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds;
  • Disorderly conduct in a capitol building; and,
  • Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building.

The government is charging him with the same crimes it’s charged all Jan. 6 defendants, although he was there as a reporter, not a demonstrator.

But the formal charges have nothing to do with what the Biden government finds objectionable. They’re just a means to force compliance.

"All of these trials are about scary words," he told The Blaze’s Steve Deace afterwards. "All of this is about the suppression of speech, and basically teaching us on the right side of the political spectrum what we can and cannot say and what is allowed. And so they are literally, in the charging documents, using words that I said before or after against me — not my behavior inside the Capitol."

Those "scary words" includes Baker’s political opinions.

Baker's Dallas attorney, James Lee Bright, observed that the Justice Department "three-plus years later going after people who were legitimate functioning journalists that day" appears designed to have an "absolute chilling effect" on the First Amendment freedoms of speech and press.

Any hope that Baker’s case might be heard in Dallas — far from the toxic atmosphere of the nation’s capital — were short-lived: "His next hearing is set in D.C. for March 14th,"said Jill Savage, BlazeTV contributor.

Nevertheless, the District of Columbia offered a glimmer of hope Friday when a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that lower courts had improperly enhanced the sentences of more than 100 Jan. 6 defendants.

The judges rejected the arguments of Justice Department prosecutors and the conclusion of the U.S. District Court that the demonstrators’ sentences should be enhanced because they’d interfered with the "administration of justice" when they stormed the Capitol Building.

"[T]he phrase 'administration of justice’ does not encompass Congress’s role in the electoral certification process," Judge Patricia Millett wrote for the panel.

"[T]ext, context, and commentary show that 'administration of justice' refers to judicial, quasi-judicial, and adjunct investigative proceedings, but does not extend to the unique congressional function of certifying electoral college votes," she added.

Meanwhile former President Donald Trump had two cases pending in the U.S. Supreme Court: One on Colorado’s decision to remove his name from the state’s Republican primary ballot, and the second on his claim of immunity from prosecution for his own alleged role in Jan. 6.

The court ruled unanimously on the first issue today, stating that his name can’t be removed, one day before the Colorado primary — "Super Tuesday," when 15 states and a U.S. territory have scheduled primary elections.

Intellectual and philosopher Bertrand Russell observed in his essay "Freedom and Government," that one step to forming a fascist society "is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other."

The fools are certainly fascinated today as the rest of us are muzzled and terrorized for holding the wrong beliefs, supporting the wrong candidate, or using the wrong pronoun.

And through it all, our right to speak freely and Steve Baker’s right to report accurately are infringed, while the left’s political enemies — whether they’re a pro-lifer, a Jan’ 6 protester or a former president — are being arrested.

And if we don’t turn this around on November 5, there’s nowhere else to go.

America is freedom’s last hope.

We will have achieved full banana republic status.

Just add a banana to the stars and stripes to make it official.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


MichaelDorstewitz
Fools are certainly fascinated today as the rest of us are muzzled and terrorized for holding the wrong beliefs, supporting the wrong candidate, or using the wrong pronoun. Our right to speak freely, to report accurately are infringed, while the left’s political enemies are being arrested.
blaze, baker, millett
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2024-33-04
Monday, 04 March 2024 09:33 AM
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