Nearly three years after he appeared on video urging people to crash the U.S. Capitol as the 2020 presidential election was being certified, Ray Epps was charged for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
According to the Associated Press on Monday, federal prosecutors charged Epps with a single misdemeanor count of disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Epps “did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds—that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the Vice President was and would be temporarily visiting—when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, and attempted and conspired to do so,” prosecutors said in court records, cited by the AP.
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On Jan. 5 and 6, Epps was heard on video saying, “I’m probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol.” At one point in the video, the pro-Trump crowd around him begins to chant “Fed, fed, fed,” implying Epps was planted by federal law enforcement.
Conservatives’ suspicion about Epps was fed by the FBI’s actions following the riot.
The FBI identified Epps on Jan. 8, 2021, as one of its 20 most wanted rioters and even offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Yet his photo quickly disappeared from the agency’s website, and he was never charged in the melee until this week, even as hundreds of other rioters who were not nearly as visible or voluble were rounded up and prosecuted.
In light of the news about the charge against Epps, the conservative website Revolver News, which has done extensive work on Epps’ case, reposted on Tuesday a December 2021 story it did detailing his actions during the riot.
“Epps was the day’s loudest riot recruiter, and its apparent leader of the very first breach of Capitol grounds,” Revolver reported at the time.
Revolver added in its report, “It would be one thing if Epps’s repeated calls on January 5 to ‘go into the Capitol’ had simply amounted to bluster. But Epps followed through on his stated mission to shepherd others inside. [In video clips], we see Epps actively orchestrate elements of the very first breach of the Capitol barricades at 12:50 p.m, while Trump still had 20 minutes left in his rally speech.”
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“It is noteworthy,” Revolver continued, “that this Ray Epps breach occurs just one minute after Capitol Police began responding to reports of two ‘pipe bombs’ located at DNC [Democratic National Committee] and GOP headquarters, respectively. Rather conveniently, the already-handicapped Capitol Police thus had still-fewer resources with which to respond to the barricade breach in question.”
The Biden administration’s charge against Epps would seem to help his case against journalist Tucker Carlson.
Epps sued Carlson for defamation earlier this year after the former Fox News personality asserted Epps may have been acting as a federal provocateur in egging others on to attack the Capitol.
Epps claimed in court records that was false because the FBI had told him in May 2023 that he would be charged for his actions on J6.
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