On November 8, 2025, Steve Baker was on top of the media world after he published an article in The Blaze entitled Capitol Police officer a forensic match for Jan. 6 pipe bomber, sources say,
The article claimed that GAIT analysis identified Shauni Kerkhoff, a former Capitol Police Officer, as a 94-98% match to the J6 pipe bomber.
This GAIT analysis looked at Shauni’s walk patterns from film he found, Steve told us, and compared it to walk patterns of video of the J6 pipe bomber.
As Steve explained the pipe bombs were placed in locations around DC on January 5, 2021, but they weren’t found until approximately 1PM the next day.
The identity of the pipe bomber remained a mystery until 2025.
Shortly after Baker’s story was released, it fell apart.
Another suspect, Brian Cole Jr., was arrested on December 5, 2025. The Blaze quickly retracted their story- The Blaze did not respond to an email for comment.
Steve told us that on April 1, 2026, he was terminated from The Blaze.
He remains convinced that his story was solid.
His story falls apart upon examination, in my opinion. First, besides this GAIT analysis, he had little evidence. Below he provided some of the circumstantial evidence, and all he had was that Shauni was about the same height as the pipe bomber.
The GAIT analysis has numerous problems. First, while GAIT analysis has its place, it’s dubious to be used for this purpose.
Furthermore, Steve has not shared the details of the GAIT analysis with anyone publicly. He told us that several places denied his request, and the entity which did it would face the full wrath of the federal government if they were revealed.
This seems dubious since everyone from Foot Locker to specialized labs do GAIT analysis, but Steve insisted that he needed to protect his sources. That exchange is below.
“It’s not known to you, but it is to me,” Steve told us.
It’s a nice line, but his analysis remains non-transparent. No one can peer review it or scrutinize it.
When it’s the single piece of evidence implicating someone in a serious crime, that raises serious ethical questions.
Cole Jr. has a lot of evidence against him. According to an affidavit submitted by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, Cole Jr’s phone was pinged in the area; he had receipts for bomb making equipment consistent with that found in the bombs, and he confessed.
Steve dismissed all of it. He said that Cole Jr. is autistic and he was interrogated for hours before this confession.
He said that while he was in the area, he could prove it was not where the pipe bomber was.
The problem is that none of this evidence of Cole’s innocence has made it into court.
Steve even suggested that he may have been doing Door Dash deliveries on January 5, 2021, but that would have left an electronic footprint which has not been released.
As with most of the evidence he presented, none of it is documented. Below is part of that exchange.
In April, Shauni sued Steve, The Blaze, and others. She hired the law firm, Clare Locke LLP, which extracted a $787 million settlement for their client Dominion in its lawsuit against Fox News Channel, after that cable news network spread false stories that Donald Trump had his election stolen.
Her attorneys did not respond to emails for comment.
Steve is currently in default after failing to respond. He said he was never served and will respond soon.
The default should be overturned if he follows through, but he faces serious legal consequences, in my opinion, given the evidence he presented on The Unknown.
After being let go from The Blaze, he started his own site, Veritas Regnat.
