Florida man arrested by FBI over anti-militia Facebook and Instagram posts after Jan. 6
Daniel Baker, an Air Force veteran in Tallahassee, was arrested by FBI agents on January 15, 2021 after posting online a 'call to arms' urging counter-protesters to confront armed right-wing demonstrators expected at state capitols. He was convicted of transmitting threats under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) and sentenced to 44 months.
On January 12, 2021, in the wake of the Capitol riot, Daniel Alan Baker — an Air Force veteran and YPG volunteer in Tallahassee, Florida — posted Facebook and Instagram messages urging armed counter-protesters to 'encircle' any right-wing militia members marching on the Florida State Capitol. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him on January 15, 2021 and charged him with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. He was convicted at a 2021 bench trial in the Northern District of Florida and sentenced to 44 months in prison. The case drew commentary from civil libertarians who argued the posts were political advocacy rather than a true threat, and the conviction was affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit in 2022.