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Who is Tim ‘Baked Alaska’ Gionet? COVID-19 positive Capitol rioter who once said ‘BuzzFeed turned me into a monster’ arrested

During the protests, he allegedly accused a cop of shoving him and yelled: ‘You’re a f**king oathbreaker you piece of s**t’

Nothing good ever comes of violence and the shocking Capitol Hill riots are proof enough. A fatal bullet hit Ashli Babbitt's chest, a bloodied officer was crushed in a doorway and another tumbled over a railing. Amid all the chaos and confusion, one far-right activist was busy broadcasting the incident. 

Popularly known as Baked Alaska, Tim Gionet is a white nationalist activist who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, and breached security to enter. Dozens of Donald Trump supporters tried to enter the Speaker's Lobby at the Capitol building by smashing a door, beyond which was the chambers of the House of Representatives and several lawmakers. The protests shook America and led to five deaths. 

Making use of blockchain service DLive, the 33-year-old live-streamed more than 20 minutes of himself from inside the US Capitol and interviewed other rioters from various rooms in the Capitol building. Interestingly, the insurrectionist had a prolific career at BuzzFeed before coming into the limelight for his role in the Capitol riots. 

When was he arrested?

Gionet was arrested on January 16, 2021, by the FBI on charges of “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority” and “violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” a criminal complaint shows.

During the protests, he allegedly accused a cop of shoving him and yelled: “You’re a f**king oathbreaker you piece of s**t.” Court documents also reveal he was recorded saying on camera, “Occupy the Capitol let’s go. We ain’t leaving this b***h.” Reportedly, he earned more than $2,000 from Capitol riot Livestream, thanks to a feature on DLive where viewers can “tip” streamers, post which he was banned from the streamer along with other platforms like Uber, GoFundMe, Patreon, and PayPal.

According to old reports from Phoenix New Times, Gionet was previously arrested in December for pepper-spraying a bouncer after he got kicked out of a Scottsdale bar and refused to leave, the Phoenix New Times reported. At that time, he live-streamed the incident and was charged with assault, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespassing.

‘We need to get our boy Donald J Trump into office’ 

Soon after there was much fury on social media. “Tim “Baked Alaska" Gionet is a neo-nazi. Referring to him as a ‘social media personality’ is like saying ‘funnyman rancher Charles Manson'," one tweet read and another said, ARRESTED: “Tim Gionet AKA Baked Alaska. Despite having COVID, he stormed the U.S. Capitol, "Let's call Trump. He'll be happy. We're fighting for Trump." then continues, "We need to get our boy Donald J. Trump into office." 2/2.”

A third tweet read, “NEW: Feds have arrested Tim Gionet, a.k.a. BAKED ALASKA. He apparently laced into police with a profanity-filled tirade and accused an officer of shoving him (though agent’s review of the film suggests otherwise),” and a fourth said, “Far-right extremist ‘Baked Alaska’ (a.k.a. Anthime Joseph Gionet) arrested in Houston for Capitol siege. Charges include 40 USC § 5104(e) for actions in the Capitol with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress etc.”

Who is Tim Gionet aka Baked Alaska?

Born Anthime “Tim” Gionet on November 16, 1987, he is now infamous as an anti-semitic conspiracy theorist who promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories like white genocide and Jewish control of the media. Not many know that he started off as a carefree, easygoing libertarian. 

According to Business Insider, he stood up against the war on drugs, supported Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's White House bid and marched for the Black Lives Matter movement, actively participating in the movement's street demonstrations. What changed then? Claiming “BuzzFeed turned me into a monster”, he quit his job and turned to the politics of Donald Trump starting with Yiannopoulos's college tour in 2016. During that time, his co-workers just called him “Alaska” and his bosses thought his name was Timothy Treadstone.

Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, to a family of eight children, he attended Azusa Pacific University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in marketing. Did you know he worked at Warner Bros Records at one time? A marijuana user, he picked the quirky name as a reference to the dessert, baked Alaska. For a brief time, rap music knocked on his door and his passion grew overnight.

He was spotted by Kevin Lyman, the founder of Warped Tour, who said, “You're in the entertainment business. You need to have a name. All anyone cared about is you're from Alaska. Your name is 'Alaska,'” adding, “Trust me, you're from Alaska, that's all anyone is going to want to ask you about. That's your name.' He's like, 'You need a name. No one cares about Tim. They care about Alaska!'”

As a rapper, he was said to have a “wild, redneck, kick-ass” persona. Soon, he strayed away after an intense effect of drugs and alcohol.

MAGA Anthem to Trump Cup

Over the years, he has participated in several social media activities to help Donald Trump. After quitting his BuzzFeed job, he reportedly traveled as Milo Yiannopoulos' Dangerous [expletive] Tour manager. Soon after, Gionet unleashed a “MAGA Anthem”, that collected over 100,000 views on YouTube. Hashtags like #DumpKelloggs and #TrumpCup was his brainchild. 

Talking about his persona, one of his friends and ex-BuzzFeed colleague said, “I've seen him happy, I've seen him sad, I've seen him doing well, I've seen him doing bad, but his whole thing is he wants people to like him. So he wants to be famous... To me, his conflict now is that it was easier to get famous without people liking him. And now he's famous, but no one likes him.”

Moreover, Gionet once penned down, “When I was a kid all I dreamed about was being famous but once it happened I realized it didn't fulfill the void in my soul like I thought it would.”

‘I felt like I was part of a cult’ 

A couple of years back, he apologized for his involvement in the meme culture in an interview, saying, “I was brainwashed, I felt like I was part of a cult.” Moreover, he confessed to The Daily Beast that he was never serious about far-right politics, and thought it “was just fun memes and jokes and edgy 4chan posting and all this stuff,” until he “got to the end of this rabbit hole and realized these guys are serious.”

Videos of his recent activity at the Capitol riots have sparked much fury. Streamed for about 20 minutes and viewed by 16,000 people, the video shows him yelling, “Let's call Trump! Let's call Trump!” Dubbed a “white nationalist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, he has reportedly been banned from Uber, GoFundMe, and numerous other platforms.

According to The Daily Dot, Gionet was recorded maskless in the crowd outside the building — just days after he posted a video Monday about testing positive for COVID-19. The outlet said people began sharing a January 4 clip of Baked Alaska's COVID-19 test discussion, in which he says he contracted the deadly virus from a bouncer at Gilligan's. 

Why wasn't he arrested earlier?

Before his arrest, there was much fuss on social media. Keemstar wrote, “And to all the people calling me a Snitch... Baked Alaska literally live-streamed himself in the capitol building. He snitched on himself. And before yesterday he’s built a career on attacking innocent people with mace. literally F this guy and F all of his fans.” BuzzFeed director Brandon Wall posted, “Noted nazi/white supremacist/etc Baked Alaska is streaming from inside a Capitol Building office.”

Talking about how he hasn't been arrested yet, a third wondered, “Has suspected white supremacist Baked Alaska been arrested yet for his part in the alt-right coup attempt at the Capitol? He never seems to get arrested in serious charges after he participates in these deadly riots. Is it possible that he is some type of government asset?”

The Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer said he had been banned from DLive. “Steaming platform DLive has banned streamers connected to the Capitol riot, including Nick Fuentes, Baked Alaska (who streamed himself breaking into Congress), and Proud Boy rioter Nick Ochs. DLive was key to some far-right income streams, since they could make money on the site.”