Jan. 6 Defendant Ray Epps Blasts Trump and Tucker Carlson in Court Filing: ‘Their Lies Led to Real Threats’

In a court filing this week, January 6th defendant and focus of far-right conspiracy theories Ray Epps took aim at former President Donald Trump and fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Epps pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge and the government is now seeking up to six months jail time for his trying to “inspire and gather a crowd” to attack the U.S. Capitol and breach a key police line that day.

In response to the government’s sentencing memo, Epps’s attorney filed their own asking for leniency. Epps’s defense included a letter from his wife who said that Trump and Fox News threw her husband “under the bus.”

“He was such a big Trump supporter and was led to believe that the election had been stolen,” wrote Robyn Epps in the letter.

“It makes me sad that he was thrown under the bus by Fox, Trump and so many other news media for doing what he thought he should to support them,” she added in the filing, which was flagged online by NBC News’s Ryan Reilly.

The filing also details Epps’s remorse over his actions on Jan. 6th and the dangers he has faced since as a result of far-right conspiracy theorists and members of Congress claiming he was part of government plot to foment the violence that day against law enforcement – an effort to absolve Trump and his supporters for attempting to stop the electoral college certification.

“From the outset, Mr. Epps has been remorseful and cooperative, attempting to mitigate the harm that occurred to the Nation on January 6th,” the filing reads, adding:

For his actions, one would think he might be lauded. Instead, he has been attacked, defamed, and vilified – and after a decision that his actions at the Capitol did not warrant prosecution, a 180-degree turnaround by the government, with the threat of a request for prison time, after his name became dragged through the mud by right-wing political dramaturges who used the (correct) lack of prosecution as a social media and public cudgel against the Garland Justice Department.

“For their own reasons, men like Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and others have falsely called out Mr. Epps as an FBI plant,” the filing adds. In July, Epps sued Tucker Carlson and Fox News for pushing a “fantastical story” that he was part of some kind of false flag operation aimed at ensnaring pro-Trump extremists. Fox News has moved to have the suit dismissed.

“They have publicly blamed Mr. Epps for what happened that day and for other persons being charged and convicted. Their lies have led to real threats against Mr. Epps, his wife, and his family,” the court filing argues, adding:

Social media has vilified them. Right-wing conspiracy theorists came by their home and their events business, sending a message with spent ammunition left on their property near their home, and leaving verbal threats of violence on their voicemail. The Epps sold their property. They fled their home and community in Queen Creek, Arizona, where they each had lived most of their lives, to move to another state as much off-the-grid as possible.

They just want no conspiracy theorists to threaten – or harm – them. Mr. Epps is a U.S. Marine, because once a Marine, always a Marine. The Corps’ values remain his values. One of those values is that you take responsibility for your actions. Mr. Epps did so.

Later in the document, Epps’s defense again singles out Carlson and points the finger at members of Congress who parroted his conspiracy theory.

“Meanwhile, right-wing conspiracy-generating political and media figures looked to create a scapegoat for January 6th. President Trump, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, and others turned their spotlight on Ray Epps. Extrapolating from video that showed Mr. Epps attempting to quell the crowd, they accused him of being an FBI plant and instigator,” the filing reads, adding:

Within days of January 6th, many right-wing supporters of Donald Trump and conspiracy theorists had shifted from blaming antifa to blaming “the feds” for theviolence at the Capitol, alleging, in essence, that the riot had been some kind of entrapment setup orchestrated by the government to ensnare Trump supporters.

Over time, Mr. Epps emerged as the central villain of that conspiracy theory. By the fall of 2021, a political and media maelstrom focused on Mr. Epps. In October 2021 a right-wing site called Revolver News published an article claiming, baselessly, that Mr. Epps had led a team of undercover federal agents that aimed to instigate the riot. Seized on by Steve Bannon and fueled by Tucker Carlson, Fox News, and the remainder of the right-wing echo chamber, the conspiracy theory blew up. Ray and Robyn Epps’ lives would never be the same.

“Fabulist U.S. Representatives Thomas Massie, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene raised the conspiracy theory about Mr. Epps in public statements and on the House floor. Senator Ted Cruz got into the act, naming Mr. Epps at a January 2022 Senate hearing,” the filing declares before quoting from Cruz and the other GOP members of Congress.

Read the full document here.