The social-media personality known as “Baked Alaska” told a federal judge he was only pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge from being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 because prosecutors had threatened to charge him with a felony if he didn’t take a plea deal.
Defendant Anthime Joseph Gionet, 34, told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, “I believe I am innocent,” to which Sullivan replied, “We’ll pick a trial date.”
Gionet was on the court calendar for a plea-agreement hearing, ostensibly to plead guilty to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, a petty misdemeanor.
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