MAGA rioter's plea deal 'goes off the rails immediately' after he surprises court by proclaiming innocence

A plea hearing for notorious Capitol rioter Tim Gionet turned chaotic on Wednesday after he surprised the court by maintaining his innocence.

NBC News' Ryan Reilly reports that Gionet's plea hearing went "immediately off the rails" when he told the court that "I believe I'm innocent."

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who was overseeing the hearing, then told Gionet to pick a trial date, although he warned him that it likely would not take place until next spring at the earliest.

According to Buzzfeed News' Zoe Tillman, Gionet had been expected to plead guilty to "a single count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol, a class B misdemeanor with a max sentence of 6 months in prison."

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That all went out the window, however, when Gionet told Judge Sullivan that he wanted to go to trial.

Shortly after Gionet made this surprising announcement, he and his lawyers went to a breakout room to discuss his options.

Gionet, who is best known as the online persona "Baked Alaska," was notorious for posting white nationalist content on social media accounts before he got himself involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.

Ever since then, he has been in continuous legal trouble for violating his court-ordered pre-release conditions, while also getting convicted in an unrelated case in which he assaulted a bouncer who threw him out of a club.

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