(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Jan. 6 defendant Ray Epps, who encouraged others to go into the Capitol and committed violence against police officers, received a year of probation for his crimes on Tuesday—fueling conspiracies that Epps was a government provocateur.
Epps was also ordered to serve 100 hours of community service.
Despite describing his behavior on Jan. 6 as “felonious,” the Justice Department only charged him with a lone misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. The DOJ recommended six months in jail for Epps leading up to Tuesday’s sentencing.
According to journalist Christina Urso, who attended the sentencing, the government bizarrely went to bat for Epps during the hearing.
“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 said.
Attended Ray Epps sentencing today – what a farce.
Thread 🧵 pic.twitter.com/6KjL1eICtE
— Radix Verum (@NotRadix) January 9, 2024
Epps’s attorney also noted that the DOJ and FBI initially closed their cases on Epps in July 2021—a fact first reported last week by Headline USA.
Along with whitewashing Epps’s conduct on Jan. 6, the DOJ also apparently didn’t mention that he likely has an outstanding arrest warrant in Pennsylvania.
The relatively light sentence drew widespread criticism from right-wing politicians and journalists who’ve followed the three-year Epps saga.
“Ray Epps, the man who directed people to go into the Capitol and privately claimed credit for orchestrating the Capitol breach, gets one year probation. Nothing to see here!” mocked Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
Ray Epps, the man who directed people to go into the Capitol and privately claimed credit for orchestrating the Capitol breach, gets one year probation. Nothing to see here! https://t.co/mlUr0mtur2
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 9, 2024
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 a lawsuit against Fox News, which is still ongoing.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
