January 6 The Commission Takes Down a Bounty Conspiracy Driven by Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol revealed on Tuesday that it interviewed Ray Epps, knocking down a right-wing conspiracy theory that the Trump supporter present at the Capitol riot was an undercover FBI agent.

“Mr. Epps has informed us that he may not employ, work with, or act at the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5 or 6 or at any other time. and he was never an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency,” The committee noted in a statement.

Politico also reported that the Epps interview happened in November, right at the time when the right-wing media were starting to trumpet “wrong flag“The Epps Conspiracy.

Epps is a Marine veteran with ties to a far-right militia group who has become a central figure in a complex conspiracy theory peddled by the right-wing media, specifically Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Begin with an October article on the right edge out, Epps was accused of inciting MAGA rioters to break into the Capitol on behalf of the federal government on January 6. Carlson has continued to claim compensation on his primetime show and His review researcher on January 6 was titled Patriotic Purge.

The the main crux of the request was that Epps was not arrested by federal agents despite his involvement in the riots, although the FBI initially circulated a photograph of him as a potential person of interest.

However, based on available footage and comment from Epps chính himself Not long after the uprising, it seems that he never entered the Capitol or participated in any violence. In fact, there’s even a video shows the Epps trying to de-escalate violence between law enforcement and rioters.

However, the conspiracy theory finally reached Capitol Hill on Tuesday, thanks to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of eight senators who voted against certifying President Joe’s election. Biden. Just a few days before, Cruz Appears On Carlson’s Show Seeking Forgiveness for calling January 6 a “violent terrorist attack,” only for the Fox News star to pressure him to push the quirky Epps theory.

In one Senate hearing on Tuesday, the Texas lawmaker — along with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) — pressed senior Justice Department officials about Epps and whether any DOJ agents or informants stimulated act violently on January 6, or commit a crime.

“Who is Ray Epps? Epps is understandable,” Cruz asked National Security Branch executive assistant Jill Sanborn. “On the night of January 5, 2021, Epps wandered around the gathered crowd and had video footage of him chanting ‘tomorrow, we need to enter the Capitol.’ The behavior was so strange that the crowd started chanting, ‘Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed’. Miss Sanborn, is Ray Epps being fed? “

Sanborn, as she did with most of Cruz’s questions, replied that she could not answer the question. Moments later, however, she said “I don’t know” when the senator asked if “federal agents or those who serve federal agents actively encourage[d] acts of violence on January 6.”

Shortly after Cruz and Cotton grilled the Department of Justice about the Epps plot, the January 6 committee issued a statement that poured cold water on the whole thing.