Jan. 6 Rioter At The Center Of Conspiracy Theories Faces Prison Time

High-profile TV commentators and elected Republicans stated Ray Epps was a federal agent who manipulated Donald Trump supporters into storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

There was no proof for the declare to start with, and federal prosecutors stated this week in a sentencing submitting that Epps, a 62-year-old former Marine from Arizona, is only a rioter who ought to go to jail. A extra thorough debunking of the Epps idea would most likely not be attainable.

Three years because the riot, the Epps case serves as each a reminder of the lies surrounding the assault on the Capitol in addition to the reality of what occurred.

Epps is one in every of greater than 1,200 Trump supporters who’ve been charged with crimes for his or her actions on Jan. 6. The assault interrupted the congressional certification of Trump’s loss within the 2020 election, injured greater than 100 law enforcement officials and left 5 individuals useless in its rapid aftermath.

Epps attended Trump’s speech that day close to the White House, the place the president insisted the election had been stolen from him and inspired his supporters to “fight like hell” and go to the Capitol. Epps himself then inspired individuals to go to the Capitol, the place he joined a bunch that fought law enforcement officials on the Capitol grounds as they made their means towards the constructing. Video from the earlier night reveals Epps saying he thought individuals ought to go all the way in which in.

“He is on video several times encouraging crimes, riots, breaches of the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Tucker Carlson stated on his Fox News present on Jan. 5, 2022. “He hasn’t been charged with anything, apparently. Why is that? That’s a real question.”

Several Republicans in Congress accused the Justice Department of defending Epps, as if he had been serving to the federal government entrap and persecute Trump supporters.

A significant motive Carlson and others accused Epps of working for the FBI was that his image had been proven on an FBI listing of suspects and was then eliminated. As Epps and his members of the family have repeatedly defined, nevertheless, Epps instantly contacted the FBI as quickly as he realized the bureau was searching for him, so there was no want for investigators to depart the image up.

Prosecutors initially declined to pursue costs in opposition to Epps, in response to an FBI doc launched this week, as a result of he didn’t truly enter the Capitol, destroy property or hit a police officer. And at a number of factors he inspired his fellow rioters to relax, similar to when he advised a person who was threatening police to “take a step back.” But the Justice Department has steadily arrested increasingly more rioters, and the U.S. lawyer’s workplace overseeing the Epps case stated others have confronted time for the sorts of issues he did.

“While Epps’ case is unique, other judges of this court nevertheless have sentenced Capitol breach defendants who encouraged others to storm the Capitol and did so themselves,” prosecutors stated this week.

The authorities, in its sentencing memo Tuesday, stated that Epps ought to spend six months in jail adopted by a yr of supervised launch and pay $500 in restitution for harm to the Capitol. He’s scheduled to be sentenced subsequent week. Whatever his official punishment, he’ll possible stay a fixture of conspiracy theories.

Epps advised the House choose committee that investigated the revolt, throughout a sworn deposition in January 2022, that he wasn’t working for the federal government. The committee made a uncommon public assertion that Epps stated “he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) advised HuffPost she didn’t purchase it. “There’s no transcript. There’s no video. There’s not even any proof that happened.”

(The Epps transcript got here out later, with the remainder of the committee’s materials, after it completed its report.)

When Epps agreed to plead responsible to disorderly conduct in September, a number of Republicans stated the cost solely made them extra suspicious.

“Think about all these people that walked in the Capitol videoing because Ray Epps was out there telling them to go in the Capitol, and they’re sitting in jail,” Greene stated. “He has to be some sort of contractor, some kind of informant.”

Epps has sought justice for himself, suing Fox News and Tucker Carlson for defamation. He’s stated he and his spouse offered their residence and enterprise to flee the threats and harassment they acquired because of the lies from Carlson and others. He stated in a assertion to the court docket this week that he’s realized to not put his belief in politicians or Fox News.

“The blame of the insurrection is not on the FBI,” he wrote. “It is on those who were at the Capitol and engaged in insurrectionist activities and those who misled Americans, like myself, into believing the election had been stolen.”