The Department of Justice has charged Ray Epps with a misdemeanor over his role in the January 6 Capitol riot that became fodder for conspiracy theorists who questioned if the former Oath Keeper leader was really a federal informant.
Epps, a Marine veteran, was charged with disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Monday filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. He was charged with impeding and disrupting the “orderly conduct of Government business” on January 6, 2021.
The charge was made via information, meaning that Epps likely plans to enter a plea deal.
Epps was present during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, but he is not believed to have entered the building. However, Epps appeared in a video a day earlier encouraging fellow supporters of then-president Donald Trump to enter the Capitol building.
Some prominent right-wing figures, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, floated the possibility that Epps may have been an undercover agent who worked to “stage-manage the insurrection” to entrap Trump supporters by encouraging them to break the law.
Epps filed a defamation suit against Fox News in July. “Just as Fox had focused on voting machine companies when falsely claiming a rigged election, Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th,” according to the lawsuit. “It settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol.”
The lawsuit claims that “Fox’s portrayal of Epps” caused him “significant damages.” It says he received death threats, was forced to sell his home and give up his Arizona ranch and wedding-venue business, and was “forced to face financial ruin.”
Most people who participated in the January 6 riot were not charged with a crime unless they entered the Capitol, fought with police officers, or destroyed property.
Testifying before the January 6 committee last year, Epps said he never intended to break the law. “It’s not in my DNA,” he said. “I don’t break the law.”