A Florida man was arrested Friday and charged with trying to organize an armed response to pro-President Donald Trump protesters expected at the state Capitol on Sunday, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.
Daniel Baker of Tallahassee was using social media to recruit people in a plot to create a circle around protesters and trap them in the Capitol, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent.
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The court document describes a series of threats of violence and a prediction of civil war. Baker is described as anti-Trump, anti-government, anti-white supremacists and anti-police.
"Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,” said U.S. Attorney Lawrence Keefe in a news release.
Baker was kicked out of the Army in 2007 after going AWOL before being deployed to Iraq. The affidavit said Baker was then homeless and largely unemployed for the following nine years, most of the time in Tallahassee.
“REMEMBER THAT THE COPS WONT PROTECT US BECAUSE THE COPS AND KLAN GO HAND IN HAND!" Baker wrote on a Facebook event page he created, according to the affidavit. “If you are afraid to die fighting the enemy, then stay in bed and live. Call all of your friends and Rise Up!”
