A former Donald Trump supporter who became the centre of a conspiracy theory about Jan. 6, 2021, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and former host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, saying the network made him a scapegoat for the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Ray Epps, a former Marine who said he was forced from his Arizona home because of threats, is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial in the wake of coverage that portrayed him as a government agent who was whipping up trouble at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that would be blamed on Trump supporters.
Although the lawsuit mentions current Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Will Cain, former Fox host Tucker Carlson is cited as the leader in promoting the theory. Epps was featured in more than two dozen segments on Carlson’s prime-time show, the lawsuit said.
“In the aftermath of the events of January 6th, Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican Party,” the lawsuit says. “Eventually, they turned on one of their own.”
Carlson “was bluntly telling his viewers that it was a fact that Epps was a government informant,” the filing adds. “And they believed him.”
Epps and his wife were “loyal Fox viewers and fans of Tucker Carlson and other Fox personalities,” before the onslaught of coverage, the suit says.
Epps claims in his lawsuit that as a result of the alleged defamatory statements made by Fox, he and his wife have been the target of harassment and death threats from Trump supporters, forced to sell the Arizona ranch where they ran a successful wedding venue business, and now face financial ruin.
According to the lawsuit, Epps and his wife are now living in a recreational vehicle in Utah.
The lawsuit displays threatening messages Epps says he received, including one that reads, “Epps, sleep with one eye open.”
No knowledge of Epps as agent: FBI
The idea that Epps was working undercover for the FBI or other government agency has circulated on hard-right websites and has even gained currency among some Republican members of Congress, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and congressman Troy Nehls, also of Texas.
“He’s encouraging, I almost think he’s inciting a riot,” Nehls, a former sheriff, said of Epps at Wednesday’s House judiciary committee hearing.
At the same hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray denied having any knowledge of Epps being a “secret government agent.”
“I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous,” Wray told lawmakers.
He refused to say, however, how many of the people who entered the Capitol and surrounding area on Jan. 6 were either FBI employees or people with whom the FBI had made contact.
In the lawsuit, Epps says the Justice Department informed him in May that he faces criminal charges for his actions on Jan. 6, which he blames on “the relentless attacks by Fox and Mr. Carlson and the resulting political pressure.”
The Select Committee is aware of unsupported claims that Ray Epps was an FBI informant based on the fact that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from that list without being charged.
—@January6thCmte
As for Carlson, the lawsuit says the former Fox News star ignored evidence that contradicted his theory, including Epps’s testimony last year before a congressional committee investigating the insurrection that he was not working for the government, and videos provided by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that showed Epps’s efforts to try to defuse the situation, the lawsuit says.
Suit follows on heels of massive Dominion payout
Carlson, who has taken to broadcasting through Twitter since being fired by Fox in April, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Epps’s lawyer, Michael Teter, noted that Carlson “was an employee of Fox when he lied about Ray, and Fox broadcast those defamatory falsehoods.”
“Fox is therefore fully liable for Mr. Carlson’s statements,” Teter said.
The former Fox star did not respond to a text message seeking comment.
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For over seven years on Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight leveraged immigration, vaccines and racial tensions to divide viewers’ worlds into “us” and “them”. Carlson became a kingmaker who could make or break Republican primary campaigns or set the policy agenda. Then, this week, the show’s incendiary reign atop cable news ended, when Fox News sent him packing. Today on Front Burner, New York Times political and investigative reporter Nicholas Confessore explains the political transformation that informed the world of Tucker Carlson Tonight, and what could be next for one of the most powerful voices in right-wing politics. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
In his defamation suit, Epps claims that on Jan. 5, the day before the storming of the Capitol, he tried to defuse a tense situation in Washington, D.C., between Trump supporters and police, confronting an agitator referred to in the lawsuit as “Baked Alaska.” That man, later identified as far-right social media personality Anthime Gionet, was sentenced earlier this year to 60 days in prison.
Epps says that in an effort to persuade Trump supporters that he was on their side, he told them, “I’m probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol. Peacefully.”
“He had concerns about the election and believed it was his duty as a citizen to participate in the protest. But he did not believe violence was appropriate,” the lawsuit claims.
Epps filed his lawsuit in Superior Court in Delaware, the same court where Toronto-founded Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for lies broadcast following the 2020 presidential election. Shortly before a trial was to begin this spring, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787 US million to settle the charges.
Fox News also faces litigation from another voting software company, Smartmatic.
Fox did not respond to texts, phone calls and emails seeking comment on Epps’s lawsuit.
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