It is interesting in this context to consider the statement from Epps’ lawyer (himself a 9 year veteran of FBI)
Note the contrast here: why no unequivocal denial across the board? Why cordon off law enforcement?
JTTF, DHS, Military Intelligence, etc are not law enforcement pic.twitter.com/FP8eE759L1
ā Darren J. Beattie š (@DarrenJBeattie) July 24, 2022
(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) The lawyer for unindicted Jan. 6 instigator Ray Epps has never actually denied that his client — who repeatedly urged J6ers to “goĀ in to the Capitol” — was working for the Feds before, during and after he attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., in 2021, according to Darren Beattie of Revolver News.
On Twitter as well as on his site, Beattie pointed out that all the denials made so far by Epps lawyer John Blischak, a former FBI agent, have to do with whether his client has operated as an informant for “law enforcement” specifically, and cannot be read as a blanket denial that Epps was working for any federal agency.
In January, for example, Blischak gave an interview to the Epoch Times, in which he claimed to have no knowledge of Epps work on behalf of “any government agency.”
“Asked whether Epps is an asset for any government agencyālaw enforcement, intelligence, or otherwiseāBlischak said, ‘Not to my knowledge,'” the Times reported.
Around the same time — after Beattie’s reporting on Epps had gone viral — the J6 Select Committee issued a statement on Twitter in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s partisan Inquisition insisted that Epps had never been an informant for a federal law enforcement agency.
The Committee has interviewed Epps. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan 5th or 6th or at any other time, & that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.
ā January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) January 11, 2022
“The Committee has interviewed Epps. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan 5th or 6th or at any other time, & that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency,” the Committee wrote.
“I’ve mentioned how bizarrely legalistic Ray Epps’ denial is, strangely leaning on the term ‘law enforcement,'” Beattie commented.
Beattie’s comment came after the publication of a New York Times “puff piece” which described Epps — who, again, is on video encouraging MAGA protestors to enter the Capitol on J6 — as the “target of a Jan. 6th conspiracy theory.”
It is worth noting that a Google search for the name “Ray Epps” turns up no material from Beattie’s RevolverĀ news site, not even when “revolver” is added to the search.