Ray Epps Blames Fox News ‘Propaganda’ for Stolen Election Conspiracy While Arguing for Leniency in Jan 6 Trial
As Ray Epps awaits sentencing over his misdemeanor charge connected with January 6th, his defense team put forth a new court filing that blamed Fox News for amplifying Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Federal prosecutors are seeking a six-month prison sentence for Epps after he pled guilty last year to disorderly conduct on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. This comes after Epps, formerly a Trump supporter, was targeted for years by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists who’ve claimed that he was an FBI agent who embedded himself among Trump supporters to incite them into the violent lawlessness that happened on January 6th.
Epps’s team is seeking leniency for his sentence, and in their filing, they emphasized that his actions surrounding January 6th did not amount to “felonious conduct,” and he was trying to de-escalate the situation when he was seen on the Capitol grounds. The filing also stressed how Epps’s life was ruined by those who claimed he was part of a false flag plot to give the Justice Department the authority to legally persecute Trump’s supporters by holding them accountable for their actions.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was among the most vocal proponents of the Epps conspiracy. Epps is suing both Carlson and the network for boosting the defamatory claims against him. Epps’s team argued that their client was in D.C. to support Trump’s claims about election fraud, and they pointed out that Fox News also had a part in pushing this “propaganda.”
From page 3 of the document:
On both January 5 and at the Trump rally on January 6, Mr. Epps sought to support peaceful protest at the Capitol. With the receipt of multiple mail-in ballots arriving at his property for persons who did not live there, he observed potential irregularities himself, and he had absorbed the propaganda espoused on Fox News. At that time, he understandably held concerns about the election’s accuracy. But as more recent statements by Mr. Epps make clear – including but not limited to his statements to the PSR writer – he has concluded that “Joe Biden won fair and square.”
Last year, Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems after the voting systems company sued the network for broadcasting defamatory claims that they helped steal the 2020 election from Trump. As for the Epps case, Fox has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that their hosts were protected under the First Amendment with their commentary on the facts surrounding him.
