James Baker (not the Obama FBI's top attorney with the same name) was alleged in a November 1, 2019 court filing by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's attorneys to be "the person who illegally leaked" transcripts of Flynn's calls with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak to Ignatius - who published the calls on January 12, 2017, "setting in motion a chain of events that lead to Flynn's February 13, 2017, firing as National Security Advisor and subsequent prosecution for making false statements to the FBI about the calls," according to Judicial Watch.

Baker was also accused by Flynn's legal team of being obese spy Stefan Halper's handler, acting as a cutout to leak information to Ignatius information that would be damaging to Trump regarding false rumors that Flynn had a romantic relationship with a Russian academic, Svetlana Lokhova, as part of a smear campaign.