“Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media. We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps.”
So wrote Sean Parnell, spokesman for the recently rechristened U.S. Department of War, when he announced in October the installation of a new Pentagon press corps, made up of reporters and outlets that had agreed to the Pentagon’s new rules for coverage. The new rules represented such a drastic infringement on the ways journalists do their jobs that even conservative outlets like Fox News Channel and Newsmax refused to sign on and chose to quit the building instead. The New York Times, on Dec. 4, sued to halt their enforcement.
But many outlets from the far right were clearly unfazed. Some 60 reporters representing them signed on. And among them St. Louis’s very own Gateway Pundit, the conspiracy-minded website owned and operated by Jim Hoft.
Only a little more than a year ago, it appeared that Hoft and his business might be on the ropes. He and his company, TGP LLC, which is now officially based in Jensen Beach, Fla., had been sued for defamation in St. Louis Circuit Court by two Georgia poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss. The two women had already won a judgment of $148 million from Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a lawyer for the 2024 campaign of President Donald Trump, for his baseless accusations against them in connection with vote counting in the 2020 election. So it appeared they might be in line for another big payout in St. Louis; Gateway Pundit, after all, had made the same accusations as Giuliani.
But Giuliani declared bankruptcy and managed to evade any payment for more than a year. Not until January 2025 did he and the two women finally reach a settlement, the terms of which have been kept confidential.
Frustrated, perhaps, by this delay, the two women settled with the Gateway Pundit in St. Louis in October 2024. The terms of that settlement also have not been disclosed, but the Gateway Pundit ran a brief, dry statement noting that Freeman and Moss “did not engage in ballot fraud and criminal misconduct” and that “A legal matter” with the two women “has been resolved …”
Today the Gateway Pundit appears to be hale and hearty. The visitors keep on coming – 26 million a month, according to Semrush, a Boston-based digital marketing platform that tracks this information. That’s nearly six times the number visiting STLToday.com and more than three times the number visiting Chicagotribune.com.
And although the Post-Dispatch has no Washington bureau, needless to say, the Gateway Pundit now has two Pentagon correspondents.
One is Jordan P. Conradson, whose personal and professional story bears a curious resemblance to that of his employer. He was down – way down. But he is resilient, and today he very much appears to be fortune’s child.
The other is Jenn Baker, who has contributed numerous pieces to the Gateway Pundit over the last several years advocating for individuals who had been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Some background on both, gathered from Internet research, follows. Neither Conradson nor Baker nor the Gateway Pundit’s lawyer, Jonathan C. Burns, responded to requests for interviews or specific questions.
***
Only a few years ago, Conradson, according to his very brief LinkedIn page, was a self-employed teenage residential real estate agent in Phoenix. He grew up in the industry, he has written elsewhere; his parents were in it. His LinkedIn page shows no evidence of his having gone to college. He is now 24 years old.
By 2020, Conradson was also reportedly working instead or in addition as a staffer in the campaign of Arizona legislator Merissa Hamilton for mayor of Phoenix. Hamilton campaigned primarily against what she called overly restrictive policies in response to Covid. She finished a distant second to the Democratic incumbent, but the job appears to have given Conradson his start in the world of politics.
Months later, in April 2021, Conradson jumped into that world with both feet by joining the Gateway Pundit. He immediately began covering a Republican-sponsored recount of the November 2020 presidential voting in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is the county seat. Supporters of President Trump had claimed there had been irregularities in favor of Biden, who had been declared the state’s winner.
In September 2021 the auditors released a report that, far from overturning the vote count, showed that Biden had actually won by a slightly higher margin than previously recognized. But the Gateway Pundit covered that development in much the same way it had the finding by the state of Georgia that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss had actually not committed any voting irregularities – it only dug in deeper.
Just a few days after the results of the audit in Maricopa County were announced, Conradson referred to the immigration then taking place across the southern border as “another horrific result of this fraudulent election.” And a few weeks after that he led another piece this way: “U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar understands there was fraud in Arizona’s 2020 presidential election.”
A few months later, on April 3, 2022, Conradson was making news himself.
Conradson was arrested on that date and briefly jailed after the police were called to the home of his girlfriend, multiple local media outlets reported. One reporter later posted a story containing a screenshot of a signed plea agreement, dated Oct. 24, 2022, in which Conradson pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor assault and criminal damage charges in exchange for a sentence of five days in jail suspended upon successful completion of domestic violence counseling. Conradson was also ordered to have no uninvited contact with the victim; and ordered to pay more than $4,000 in restitution to her mother, whose property had been damaged. The story said that after completion of his domestic violence counseling, the public record of the complaints read “compl. dismissed by court.”
Another apparent setback came later in the year. Maricopa County shut Conradson out of county press conferences in the run-up to the 2022 election by refusing him a press pass. The county said he was “not a bona fide correspondent of repute in your profession.”
In response to both of these setbacks, however, Conradson pushed back. And both times, he prevailed.
After he was refused a press pass, Conradson and The Gateway Pundit sued, accusing Maricopa County of violating their First Amendment rights. The county said legal precedent gave it the authority to set limitations on journalists, and that Conradson’s reporting had led to death threats against county employees. But after a district court judge ruled in the county’s favor, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the plaintiffs, contending that the county’s action had violated the First Amendment because it had been based on the viewpoints expressed in Conradson’s writing. In April 2023 Maricopa County settled with the Gateway Pundit for $175,000.
As satisfying as that win must have been for the Gateway Pundit, however, it may pale against Conradson’s recovery from his arrest. His Facebook page and Instagram accounts report that he and the young woman he pleaded guilty to assaulting are planning to marry.
Conradson made news again after lawyers for the two Georgia poll workers filed a brief in St. Louis in connection with the defamation case. The brief, part of the discovery process in that case, noted that one of the pieces the Gateway Pundit published “discussing the false allegations underlying this case” had been an interview conducted by Conradson with an election denier. (The interview has apparently since been deleted from the Gateway Pundit website, likely in compliance with the settlement.)
The filing then asked the court to compel the Gateway Pundit to produce “information about criticisms of TGP contributors. … documents produced by third parties but not by Defendants show that TGP’s staff had major concerns as to the professionalism, reliability, and honesty of several contributors, including Jordan Conradson, who wrote some of the defamatory Articles.” The filing specifically cited “texts between TGP director of operations and associate editor expressing concerns that a contributor engaged in plagiarism and made claims without any sources.”
The texts were never made public, however, and the discovery process ended with the settlement. None of the requested information about internal criticisms of Conradson’s work has ever been made public.
The associate editor for the Gateway Pundit throughout Conradson’s tenure at the publication has been Cristina Laila. In a 2021 interview with the GJR, Hoft said she shares pre-publication story review duties with Conradson.
Laila, who describes herself on her Instagram account as a “Defender of Christendom,” did not respond to a GJR interview request.
In any event, Conradson appears to be running at full speed. On his X account he accuses the Democrats who noted that members of the armed forces should disobey illegal orders of “calling for a military coup.” On X and elsewhere, he refers to Jasmine Crockett, a black Congresswoman, as “Ghetto, dumb and ignant” and mockingly mimics her speech. On Rumble.com, he has a new interview program called “DC Dive,” where he explains that the Democrats shut down the government because they “want to destroy Trump’s main achievement; the economy.” On Gateway Pundit, he cheerleads for the administration’s policies of blowing up ships in international waters.
And he is excited, in his own words posted on X, to be at the Pentagon, where he can now “help restore honest journalism.”
***
Jenn Baker, his Gateway Pundit co-worker at the Pentagon, is if anything more excited. In fact, she posted on Facebook and X, she is “overwhelmed with excitement to be able to represent @gatewaypundit in the Pentagon Press Corps.”
The new rules instituted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are “common sense,” she wrote. And her new assignment, she believes, has a divine dimension.
“Yesterday I was blessed to see the Pentagon tree lighting and share it with … other members of the DoW Press Corps,” she wrote Dec. 4 on X. “@SecWar has brought God back. Serving Him so he can serve the members of our military. Thank you @PressSecDOW.”
On her Facebook page, Baker shares little information beyond the fact that she is from Yorba Linda, Cal. A biographical blurb posted on the Gateway Pundit site describes her as the “lead writer and outreach coordinator for the legal advocacy group called Condemned USA.” The blurb mentions that she also has a podcast on Rumble called “Flip the Switch w/Jenn.”
On its website, Condemned USA describes itself as “a legal advocacy dedicated to defending constitutional rights and ensuring fair treatment for those facing political persecution … founded in response to the events of Jan. 6” and providing “legal support, public advocacy, and educational resources for individuals and families affected by government overreach and judicial bias.” The organization is registered as a nonprofit but has not yet filed the IRS Form 990 that would give insight into its financials.
The founder of the organization is Treniss Evans III., a resident of Canyon Lake, Tex. who in 2022 was sentenced to three years’ probation for his participation in the events of Jan. 6. In its sentencing memo, the U.S. Attorney’s office said that after stepping through a broken window to enter the Capitol building Jan. 6, Evans had “someone record a video of him drinking a shot of whiskey” in what he believed was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s conference room.
The memo added: “Evans has made statements on social media demonstrating a lack of genuine remorse and has raised money off his participation in the January 6 attack; and … has glorified political violence on social media, including by saying in February 2022 that he ‘love[d]’ a post threatening to ‘stack bodies’ if members of the ‘deep state’ did not ‘surrender.’”
The AP included Evans in a story about Jan. 6 rioters who had tried to profit off their activities that day.
But Evans has said he founded Condemned USA to help other Jan. 6 protesters with less money and access to legal and other help than he had. And the U.S. Attorney acknowledged in his sentencing statement that he used a megaphone outside the Capitol building to urge fellow-protesters to be peaceful.
Baker’s interview show, “Flip the Switch with Jenn Baker,” is carried on the Rumble.com platform that is host to many far-right outlets. She has used it almost exclusively for interviews – entirely sympathetic and supportive – with Jan. 6 protesters. Among them have been Barry Ramey, a Proud Boy who pleaded guilty to pepper-spraying a police officer; Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys; and Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers and, by her description, “an accomplished, wonderful man.”
Baker’s writing also includes at least one piece in behalf of the nonprofit American Rights Alliance, which is funded, she reports, by Donald Trump Jr., and where Evans, she reports, is chief operating officer.
The piece focuses on the plight of Tina Peters, a former clerk of Mesa County, Col. who since October 2024 has been serving prison time in that state for tampering in connection with the 2020 presidential election. Specifically, Peters was found guilty of allowing an associate of MyPillow salesman and Trump loyalist Mike Lindell access to a secure room to copy a hard drive containing data from the state’s 2020 presidential election results. The effort was in connection with a failed attempt at discovering voter fraud.
Peters, Baker wrote, is one of the “patriots” who has been “targeted by their own government.” (In a bit of reversal, Baker was herself the guest on Peters’ own podcast, “The Truth Matters with Tina Peters,” in July 2024. That podcast was sponsored by Lindell’s digital outlet, LindellTV, and like Baker’s podcast, also carried on the Rumble platform. “I love you so much,” Baker told Peters to start the interview.)
One of Baker’s allies in supporting Peters is Ed Martin, the former St. Louisan who is now, among other jobs, U.S. pardon attorney. He expressed sympathy for her situation in a Nov. 10 interview with Steve Bannon in November.
Another of Bake’s and Peters’ allies is Peter Ticktin, a Trump friend since prep school and an attorney. During a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, he agreed with Bannon that if other steps failed to accomplish it, federal troops should descend on the prison and effect Peters’ release. Those troops, of course, would be under the ultimate direction of Hegseth and Trump. (On Dec. 11, Trump issued a pardon for Peters, but Colorado state officials immediately said she would remain in prison because presidential pardon powers do not extend to state crimes, like those for which she was convicted.)
A few months earlier, in August at a conference sponsored by the Gateway Pundit, Ticktin supported the declaration of an emergency to ensure “a fair election” next year.
“We’ve got problems in terms of the elections,” he said, “and I wouldn’t be very surprised if we find out before the next election that there’s … an emergency called. I don’t have it on good authority that this is going to be done, but a number of people are urging it because it’s necessary. And with that emergency, we’re going to be able to turn the tide.”
In 2009 the Florida Bar suspended Ticklin for 91 days after finding that he had shown a “blatant disregard for the rules governing conflicts of interest (that) reflects his poor professional judgment.”
But if that record and his comments about the 2026 elections strike some Americans as disturbing, Jenn Baker – the woman who is half of the Gateway Pundit’s team of correspondents at the Pentagon – has words of reassurance.
In her article last May about the American Rights Alliance, she wrote:
“Peter Ticktin is no ordinary attorney. A lifelong friend of President Donald J. Trump, Ticktin is one of America’s most respected litigators. His legal acumen, combined with his national platform and moral clarity, make him an unstoppable force in the courtroom.”
Paul Wagman is a former Post-Dispatch reporter and FleishmanHillard executive who is now an independent reporter, editor and communications consultant.
