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.
So Sullivan said he'd set a trial date for March 2023. More than 285 people have pleaded guilty in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and nearly 800 individuals have been charged.
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