Ray Epps, who is one of the only people caught on video urging people to push their way into the Capitol building ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, is the only one present in the crowd that day that the Department of Justice wants you to feel bad for.
Why? Because the DOJ’s long delay in charging him with a crime despite his call for people to “go into the Capitol” the day before the riot led to widespread speculation that he was a federal asset. In fact, in the video where he is seen urging people to enter the Capitol, he is heckled with chants of “fed.”
Now, for what it’s worth, Epps, his attorney, and the DOJ have all denied that he is or ever was a federal informant or asset, and he did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, only the restricted grounds. And on Tuesday, Epps was finally sentenced for participating in the chaos that day.
But while hundreds of people who have faced charges for the riot have been charged with felonies and faced years in prison, Epps instead was allowed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Mike Gordon reportedly said that Epps “has been unfairly scapegoated” and recommended a six-month jail sentence. Epps was ultimately given only a year of probation by Judge James Boasberg, who said that the defendant was the only member of the Jan. 6 crowd who had suffered consequences “for what [he] didn’t do.”
In other words, the DOJ and Boasberg want you to feel bad for Epps, despite the fact that he told people to “go into the Capitol,” and they want you to feel nothing but contempt for all the rest of the people who did.
Epps may be an innocent victim in all of this, but his actions, and those of the DOJ, are not going to quell suspicion that he was a federal informant.
When the possibility was first raised that he may have been a federal agent, Epps went to the New York Times, which published a long spread detailing how difficult his life had become since the theory drew mainstream attention, most especially from Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show.
A year later, it was 60 Minutes that profiled Epps in a nationally televised interview that sought to downplay any role he had in the riot.
Free tip: Do not go to legacy media outlets that are known to harbor deep biases toward conservatives and Republicans when you are trying to clear your name from allegations that you helped the government organize a riot to make conservatives and a Republican president look bad. It’s just not a smart move.
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As for Epps’s treatment at the hands of the justice system, it’s not a difficult conclusion to draw that the DOJ’s sympathetic and soft treatment of Epps is only going to fuel more speculation that he was working with the federal government from the get-go. Especially since so many other Capitol rioters who engaged in similar activity to Epps have faced far stiffer charges and sentences.
Epps may not be a fed. But the media and the DOJ are certainly doing everything they can to make it look like he is.