Posted on 01/09/2024 9:10:43 AM PST by Red Badger
A man targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories about the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Tuesday to a year of probation for joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of fellow Donald Trump supporters.
Ray Epps, a former Arizona resident who was driven into hiding by death threats, pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge. He received no jail time, and there were no restrictions placed on his travel during his probation, but he will have to serve 100 hours of community service. He appeared remotely by video conference and wasn't in the Washington, D.C., courtroom when Chief Judge James Boasberg sentenced him.
Epps' sentencing took place in the same building where Trump was attending an appeals court hearing as the former president's lawyers argued he's immune from prosecution on charges he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost.
Fox News Channel and other right-wing media outlets amplified conspiracy theories that Epps, 62, was an undercover government agent who helped incite the Capitol attack to entrap Trump supporters. Epps filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News last year, saying the network was to blame for spreading baseless claims about him.
Federal prosecutors have backed up Epps’ vehement denials that he was a government plant or FBI operative. They say Epps has never been a government employee or agent beyond serving in the U.S. Marines from 1979 to 1983.
The ordeal has forced Epps and his wife to sell their property and businesses and flee their home in Queen Creek, Arizona, according to his lawyer.
“He enjoys no golf, tennis, travel, or other trappings of retirement. They live in a trailer in the woods, away from their family, friends, and community,” attorney Edward Ungvarsky wrote in a court filing.
The internet-fueled accusations that upended Epps' life have persisted even after the Justice Department charged him with participating in the Jan. 6 siege.
"Fear of demented extremists has no apparent end in sight so long as those who spread hate and lies about Mr. Epps don't speak loudly and publicly to correct the messaging they delivered," Ungvarsky wrote in a court filing.
Epps pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, a charge punishable by a maximum of one year behind bars.
Prosecutors recommended six months behind bars for Epps, who has worked as a roofer, a handyman, a farmer and a venue operator. His lawyer sought six months of probation without any jail time.
Ungvarsky says his client went to Washington on Jan. 6 to peacefully protest the certification of the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican.
Prosecutors say Epps encouraged the mob to storm the Capitol, helped other rioters push a large metal-framed sign into a group of officers and participated in “a rugby scrum-like group effort” to push past a line of police officers.
"Even if Epps did not physically touch law enforcement officers or go inside of the building, he undoubtedly engaged in collective aggressive conduct," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon wrote in a court filing.
Epps surrendered to the FBI two days after the riot after learning that agents were trying to identify him. He agreed to be interviewed by FBI agents as well as by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The government initially declined to prosecute Epps in 2021 after the FBI investigated his conduct on Jan. 6 and found insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime, according to Ungvarsky. Epps isn't accused of entering the Capitol or engaging in any violence or destruction on Jan. 6.
“Mr. Epps was one of many who trespassed outside the Capitol building. Through the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, most of those persons will never be charged,” the defense lawyer wrote.
More than 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by a judge or jury. Approximately 750 rioters have been sentenced, with nearly two-thirds getting some term of imprisonment.
Epps once served as an Arizona chapter leader for the Oath Keepers, but he parted ways with the anti-government extremist group a few years before the Jan. 6 attack.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Biden after the 2020 election. Rhodes was sentenced last year to 18 years in prison.
Fox News hasn't responded to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on Epps' lawsuit.
And that they were yelling “Fed! Fed! Fed!” at him?
AND are going to go after others who didn’t even enter the Capitol!
Removes all doubt he is a FED. All doubt...
He must have been some other abc DOJ department!! He got the kid glove treatment!!! There is something else going on!!
Wow… what a crazy sympathetic article. People are rotting in jail for years for doing far less than what he did.
But it’s not just that he’s a Fed — it’s what that implies. It looks like the whole thing was an elaborate false flag operation, a giant trick.
So, the poor guy gets hounded everywhere he goes? I guess it was worth giving up his life to be one of the instigators of the “insurrection”? I do not feel sorry for him at all.
It was...........................
Think about it. All they needed was 10 to 15 people to “break in” to the Capitol building for the media and DNC party to run with their 24/7 talking points of an “insurrection”. This guy was at the front of the line for days staging the insurrection. FED, FED, FED! The National Guard (Trump supporters) could not be on the grounds that day and Nancy Pelosi made sure they were not there. There is no doubt this was a staged coup by the DC/Capitol police and three letter agencies. They had seven ways to Sunday to stage this and they did!
What “Conspiracy” he is ON VIDEO CALLING FOR PEOPLE TO STORM THE CAPITOL how is that a “Right wing conspiracy” the fact that this piece of sh*t only got 1 year probation while others are serving LIFE SENTENCES for walking into the capitol shows everyone he is a federal agent..that is why the left adores him so much, they love the FBI they do their bidding
.
The Republicans will expose the whole thing and unravel the sea of lies.
On second thought….
“Ray Epps, a target of Jan. 6 conspiracy theories”
Can anyone name for me a single conspiracy theory related to Epps?
The disparate treatment this guy has received is glaring nd his role in the event is not a matter of conspiracies, it is a matter of documented actions and statements by him on video and in texts.
That is what you get IF you are convicted of a Misdemeanor.
He was inciting a riot.
It absolutely proves he is a Fed asset. If not an actual Federal Employee.
How many young lives did you, yes you Ray Epps ruin, by encouraging the young people to go into the Capitol, yes into the Capitol!
“We must go INTO the Capitol!”
He was (is) a FED!
Wow. After reading this opinion piece masquerading as news you can’t tell me that my tagline isn’t spot on.
Can he apply his FBI activities at the Capitol as his community service, retroactively?
Can he claim it’s time toward his pension?............
Yet people just walking by go to jail.
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