Ray Epps, focus of a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory, is charged in Capitol riot
Epps has sued Fox News, Tucker Carlson for repeatedly accusing him of being a government agent
Epps owned a ranch in Arizona where he hosted weddings, but he has since said he was forced to sell it. He said he went to the rally because he felt the election had been stolen from Trump, but did not participate in any violence, including the first breach of external barriers by rioters at the Peace Circle. After officers were overrun and bicycle racks discarded, Epps joined the mob rushing toward the Capitol, though he did not ultimately enter the building.
The Capitol attack delayed the formal counting of electoral votes by a joint session of Congress, which confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential race.
Fox News repeatedly singled out Epps as a possible government agent in stoking the anger of the crowd, leading public officials such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to publicly cite him. In July, Epps sued Fox News and one of its former hosts, Tucker Carlson, for defamation.
Both the FBI and the House select committee investigating the riot examined Epps’s role. Committee members told The Washington Post in a statement that they had interviewed Epps and that he told them “he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan. 5 or 6th or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”
Epps also gave an interview to CBS’s “60 Minutes” in which he acknowledged he was at the Capitol but denied any ties to the government. The FBI then issued an unusual statement to “60 Minutes,” saying, “Ray Epps has never been an FBI source or an FBI employee.”
Epps has been charged with disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, a misdemeanor offense that hundreds of Capitol rioters have faced. Court records indicate he has both an arraignment and a plea agreement hearing set for 3 p.m. Wednesday before Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington.
Epps’s lawyer, Edward J. Ungvarsky, confirmed the charge and the anticipation of a guilty plea but declined to comment further.
Video played at the first trial of members of the far-right Oath Keepers, who were accused of entering the Capitol and instigating unrest that day, showed Epps speaking to Ryan Samsel, a Pennsylvania man with a history of violence who is awaiting trial next month on multiple charges of assaulting police on Jan. 6. The conversation cannot be heard, but Samsel can then be seen attacking the police fence at Peace Circle and knocking down Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a concussion.
Some believed that Epps was urging Samsel to overrun the police line. But Epps told “60 Minutes” earlier this year that he said to Samsel: “Dude, we’re not here for that. The police aren’t the enemy.” Samsel told the FBI the same thing in an interview, according to the New York Times, reporting that Samsel said Epps “came up to me and he said, ‘Dude’ — his entire words were, ‘Relax, the cops are doing their job.’”
Epps was also captured on video the night before Jan. 6, at a pro-Trump rally in the District, telling the crowd, “I’m probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol! Into the Capitol! Peacefully!” The crowd responded by chanting “Fed! Fed! Fed!,” the first of many groups to suspect Epps of being an undercover infiltrator. Epps told “60 Minutes” he and his wife have moved out of Arizona and are living in a recreational vehicle.
Commentators on Fox News continued to single out Epps as a possible informant, even after the FBI declared he was not. “Fox refused to retract, correct, or apologize for its demonstrably false and defamatory accusations against Epps,” his defamation lawsuit alleges, “well after Fox knew definitively that they were false, providing yet additional circumstantial evidence of actual malice.”
Fox said in response to Epps’s suit that its on-air hosts were entitled to raise questions about why Epps was not arrested, that such discussions were constitutionally “protected opinions.” Fox fired its top-rated host, Carlson, in April, soon after Epps appeared on “60 Minutes” and the network settled its defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over false claims made by Carlson and others.
Epps’s lawyers said in the suit that he had been told in May that he would be charged for his actions on Jan. 6. The government has charged nearly 200 more defendants this year for the 2021 insurrection, in addition to the approximately 1,000 charged in 2021 and 2022.
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