The far-right livestreaming troll Anthime Joseph “Tim” Gionet, known best by his moniker “Baked Alaska,” has been facing all kinds of legal problems in regards to his participation in the attempted overthrow of our government on Jan. 6, 2021. On Wednesday, Gionet was finally having his day in federal court, ostensibly ready to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading or demonstrating in the Capitol. The white supremacist-friendly Gionet livestreamed himself during the break-in of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in the Capitol building.
However, when asked by Judge Emmett Sullivan whether or not he wanted to plead guilty, Baked Alaska surprised everyone (maybe his lawyers most of all) by replying: “I wanted to go to trial but the prosecutor said if I didn’t go to trial they would put a felony on me so I think this is probably the better route. I believe I’m innocent.” Prosecutors have said that they plan on continuing their investigations into Baked Alaska now that he has chosen to go to trial, but deny that they threatened him with federal charges if he didn’t plead guilty to the misdemeanor on Wednesday.
Why did Baked Alaska suddenly change his mind?
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In January of this year, a Scottsdale, Arizona, judge sentenced Baked Alaska to serve 30 days in jail for assaulting a man at Giligin's Bar in Old Town Scottsdale. In that case, Baked Alaska filmed himself antagonizing patrons, which is what he does in the hopes of getting online subscribers, and then ended up in a confrontation with the bar’s security. A member of security tried to get Gionet to leave, so Gionet assaulted them, spraying pepper spray at the employee twice.
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It was a clear case of how shitty a person Baked Alaska is. While this wasn’t the first or second or third time Gionet has filmed himself being an absolute menace to people, it was his first criminal conviction. He only received 30 days of a possible six-month maximum sentence.
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Gionet’s sentencing came after he broke an agreement not to leave the state of Arizona—which he clearly did by traveling to break the law in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021. At the time of his sentencing, Gionet recorded himself saying "They can't force me to serve whatever sentence they give,” which sort of sums up pathetic privileged white fascists like Gionet perfectly. He has yet to serve the sentence as he is currently appealing the case.
Wednesday’s shenanigans are in the vein of someone who is willing to do anything to pull in subscribers to make money, and believes the law does not really apply to people who look like him. Considering that Gionet filmed himself during the seige of the Capitol saying things like, “America First is inevitable. Fuck Globalists, let’s go!” and telling police “You’re a fucking oathbreaker, you piece of shit,” and shouting “Occupy the Capitol let’s go. We ain’t leaving this bitch,” his defense that he’s a reporter of some sort is weak at best. It seemed a relatively minimal plea deal could be pretty sweet, all things considered.
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An image of Baked Alaska finding “God”
According to Right Wing Watch, Gionet explained his sudden change of heart to his livestream audience, saying: “So, I went in [to the courtroom] to take the plea, blah blah blah, dah dah dah, talk to my attorney this morning, and then I sat in the hearing and God just put it on my heart. To just speak the truth. To just speak from the heart and that’s what I did.” By saying he didn’t “care” about “blowing up” his plea deal, but God and values and stuff. He literally says that he was “filled with God’s holy spirit” and that he was “speaking what God wanted me to say.”
Of course, he then proceeded to leave open the very real possibility that he will still take the plea deal, but that he was able to “expose” what “was happening to Jan. 6 defendants.” Huh. So, God sort of invaded, maybe broke into Baked Alaska’s body—let’s call it his personal office—and then proceeded to force him to blow up his plea deal—which he still might take because the truth is that it’s a better deal then being found guilty of personally filming the evidence of how guilty you are of breaking the law? This God guy! It sounds like Gionet is blaming God for fumbling the football here.
Sullivan reportedly set the trial date for March 7, 2023, and U.S. attorneys told the court that the plea deal on the table would continue to be viable for the next 60 days if Gionet changes his mind. Maybe God will tell him to take off those ridiculous shades?
