(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department’s sweetheart plea deal for Capitol Hill provocateur Ray Epps may have opened the door for other Jan. 6 defendants to have charges against them dismissed.
At least that’s what defendant William Pope argued in a Jan. 2 motion to dismiss, which came on the heels of the DOJ recommending that Epps only receive six months imprisonment—even though he helped stoke the riot and pushed a sign into a group of police officers during the event.
I have filed a motion to dismiss charges in my case due to selective prosecution.
While the government alleges Mr. Ray Epps engaged in felonious conduct, they charged him with a single misdemeanor, while they indicted me on eight counts and ignored the same mitigating factors. pic.twitter.com/b6XzDOaBrs
— 🇺🇸 (@FreeStateWill) January 3, 2024
In his motion, Pope, who is representing himself, pointed to the fact that he faces eight charges and up to 30 years imprisonment, despite being entirely peaceful when he briefly walked through the Capitol building.
“My conduct is distinct from Epps in that I did not urge people to go into the Capitol on January 5 and January 6, 2021, I did not leave the President’s speech early and was not one of the first to run onto Capitol grounds like Epps was. I also did not push a sign into police officers,” Pope said.
“Yet, the government claims in their sentencing memorandum for Epps … that ‘a variety of distinctive and compelling mitigating factors’ in Epps case, ‘led the government to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and offer Epps a pre-indictment misdemeanor plea resolution,’ even though the government claims that ‘Epps engaged in felonious conduct.’”
Among the mitigating factors cited by the DOJ are that Epps turned himself in to the FBI on January 8, 2021, that he cooperated with the FBI by participating in interviews, and that he attempted to deescalated individuals on January 6.
Pope said he has similarly mitigating factors that haven’t been acknowledged by the DOJ.
“I reported my presence to the FBI’s tip website on January 9, 2021, the first full day I was back home in Kansas, and I participated in an interview with the FBI soon after. In fact, I did this despite not being on the FBI wanted list like Epps was,” he said.
“Yet despite me being entirely peaceful, while Epps was provoking the crowds and assaulting police, and despite the same mitigating factors being present, the government has treated me much more severely than Epps. They have brought eight charges against me, rather than one; and rather than offering a single misdemeanor plea, the government tried to force me to plead to Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, a felony with a twenty-year max sentence.”
Pope speculated that he could be treated differently by the DOJ for a number of reasons, including his extensive journalism that has knocked down the government’s narrative about Jan. 6.
Among other actions, Pope is the defendant who filed a bombshell document that exposed illicit behavior by undercover Capitol Police officers. He’s also put together numerous video packages featuring possible undercover assets who helped provoke the Jan. 6 riot.
The January 6 questions that most avoid asking are: Who were the 140+ people that FBI "informational and operational asset" Doug Hagmann had inside and around the Capitol? Why did they call for 500k armed men to come to DC? And why do they have backgrounds in intel agencies? 🧵 pic.twitter.com/2R5X544jyW
— 🇺🇸 (@FreeStateWill) November 20, 2023
In his motion, Pope even joked that the DOJ may be targeting him because “prosecutors resented me being better looking than themselves.”
In any event, “Lady Justice has not weighed all things equally,” he concluded.
“The government has bestowed favor upon Ray Epps that they have not bestowed equally on me.”
Pope asked his judge to toss the DOJ’s charges against him, or to compel discovery about government’s preferential treatment of Epps.
The DOJ has yet to respond.
Pope’s trial is currently set for July.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
