(Ken Silva, Headline USA) After a two-day hearing, a federal judge tossed Ray Epps’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Wednesday, saying he didn’t provide enough facts to show that former host Tucker Carlson acted with “actual malice” when he insinuated that Epps may have been working with the government to provoke the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill uprising.
The judge’s dismissal wasn’t listed on the federal court docket as of the publication of this article, but was reported by Politico journalist Kyle Cheney.
JUST IN: A federal judge has thrown out Ray Epps' lawsuit against Fox News, saying he didn't provide enough facts to plausibly allege "actual malice" when Tucker Carlson insinuated he may have been working with the government on Jan. 6.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 27, 2024
Epps is the controversial figure seen on camera on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, urging protestors to enter the Capitol. He initially appeared on the FBI’s wanted list in relation to the Capitol rioting, only to be removed in the summer of 2021 with no explanation.
Epps initially sued Fox News in July 2023. At the time, he had yet to be charged by the Justice Department for his role in the Jan. 6 protests.
Epps was formally charged with one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct in September 2023. He wasn’t charged with inciting a riot or other crimes, even though he’s caught on video telling protestors to go “into the Capitol”—and even though the DOJ described his behavior as “felonious.” Epps also reportedly admitted to the FBI that he trespassed on Capitol grounds, and made a bizarre comment about expecting a bombing to happen that day.
In January, Epps received probation for the one misdemeanor charge. He was also ordered to serve 100 hours of community service.
According to journalist Christina Urso, who attended the sentencing, the government bizarrely went to bat for Epps during the hearing.
Attended Ray Epps sentencing today – what a farce.
Thread 🧵 pic.twitter.com/6KjL1eICtE
— Radix Verum ☦︎ (@NotRadix) January 9, 2024
“The prosecutor praised Epps ‘de-escalation tactics’ and had a whole slide show for it entitled ‘Attempts to De-escalate.’ Both Judge Boasberg and the prosecutor both claimed ‘he never tried to go into the Capitol,’” Urso reported at the time.
Epps has claimed that the DOJ’s trespassing charge against him disproves the theory that he was a federal asset who encouraged Trump supporters to commit violence on Jan. 6.
“In May 2023, the Department of Justice notified Epps that it would seek to charge him criminally for events on January 6, 2021—two-and-a-half years later. The relentless attacks by Fox and [Tucker] Carlson and the resulting political pressure likely resulted in the criminal charges,” Epps said last year in his failed lawsuit against Fox News.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
