Ray Epps sentenced as Jan 6 conspiracy theories proceed to dominate his life

Sign up for the each day Inside Washington electronic mail for unique US protection and evaluation despatched to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington electronic mail

A person whose life was upended by right-wing conspiracy theories accusing him of being a federal agent assigned to entrap Donald Trump’s supporters has been sentenced to 1 yr of probation for crimes related to the January 6 assault.

Ray Epps acquired a sentence of 12 months of probation on 9 January after pleading responsible to a cost of disorderly or disruptive conduct for becoming a member of a mob in Washington DC and inspiring rioters to march to the US Capitol, the place the previous president’s loyalists stormed the halls of Congress to reject the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.

He was sentenced in the identical constructing the place Mr Trump was attending his personal listening to to defend his declare to “immunity” from prosecution for his makes an attempt to overturn the election, culminating within the mob fuelled by his election lies that he did not cease.

Epps and his spouse have spent the three years that adopted dodging an ongoing conspiracy concept amplified by Fox News, members of Congress and Mr Trump himself alleging that he labored with federal regulation enforcement to impress rioters.

Prosecutors and federal regulation enforcement officers have repeatedly rejected these claims, and Epps is suing Fox News and Tucker Carlson for defamation.

In a letter asking a choose for leniency earlier than Tuesday’s listening to, Epps – who supported the previous president in 2016 and 2020 and was a loyal Fox viewer on the time – wrote that he has since discovered “not to put my trust in politicians, Fox News and some other media and social media outlets, only to have them betray me and other American citizens with election lies.”

“When the lies were exposed, they created a conspiracy to shift the entire blame for the insurrection on the FBI and myself as I became the face of J6,” he wrote. “The blame for the insurrection is not on the FBI. 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.”

Federal prosecutors initially requested a jail sentence of six months.

The Epps household and his attorneys sought a probationary sentence, pushing again in opposition to claims from prosecutors that he “engaged in felonious conduct” and pointing to the “overwhelming” impacts from conspiracy theories and far-right threats to his household.

“He was running a family property that contained a special-events venue and other businesses before selling it all and going into hiding because of threats against him and his wife as a result of dangerous misinformation,” his lawyer Ed Ungvarsky wrote on 7 January. “They live in a trailer in the woods, away from their family, friends, and community.”

In a separate letter to the choose, his spouse Robyn Epps wrote that Fox News was the couple’s “exclusive news channel.”

But after Fox and others unfold what she known as the “Ray Epps conspiracy theory,” the couple “endured death threats and harassment that put our lives at risk,” she wrote.

Their telephones have been bombarded with threatening messages and “frightening” voicemails. People drove by their properties waving weapons. Bullet casings have been discovered on their property. Couples posed as potential clients for his or her marriage ceremony enterprise solely to nook them with questions on Epps. The threats, intruders and worry turned so overwhelming they ultimately bought their dwelling and enterprise to enter hiding, Ms Epps wrote.

“We have suffered under the attacks of Fox News, politicians and social media and have learned how conspiracy theories can grow so quickly,” she wrote. “They did so because the media and people who are trusted lie, distort the truth and outright make up information for their own benefit or edification.”

Another letter from Epps relations stated he was “thrown under the bus by Fox, Trump and so many other news media for doing what he thought he should to support them.”

“For a time afterward, as someone who believed in peaceful protest and saw non-peaceful agitation, he questioned how so many Trump supporters could be so wrong and thought there might also be left-wing persons amidst the crowd stirring the pot,” in response to his lawyer.

“Mr Epps concluded long ago that any such thoughts were wrong,” Mr Ungvarsky wrote. “He educated himself.”

Despite testimony from Epps and dozens of others prices in reference to January 6, the previous president himself and his allies in Congress and in media proceed to falsely assert that “antifa” or authorities actors performed a task within the assault.

“By the way, there was antifa, there was FBI, there were a lot of other people there too leading the charge,” Mr Trump stated at a rally in Iowa on 5 January. “You saw the same people that I did.”

Source: independent.co.uk