Left: Ray Epps is seen talking with accused Jan. 6 rioter and Proud Boys member Ryan Samsel near the Peace Circle monument (via FBI court filing). Right: Photo of Tucker Carlson (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).
An Arizona man who became a central figure in a right-wing conspiracy theory about the origins of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has lost his court case against Fox News, which he accused of defaming him in the wake of the historic violence.
James Ray Epps said that Tucker Carlson — who parted ways with the network in the wake of its massive settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 — falsely implicated Epps as a government plant who “helped stage-manage” the melee. As a result of the publicity, Epps says, he and his wife faced online attacks and threats of violence so severe that they had to leave their home and live in their RV.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Hall, a Joe Biden appointee, dismissed Epps’ complaint.
“For the reasons announced from the bench today, it is hereby ordered that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is granted,” Hall wrote in a terse one-page order (citations omitted).
Hall told the parties that Epps and his lawyers had failed to prove that Carlson had acted with “actual malice,” according to a courtroom report by The New York Times. The judge reportedly acknowledged that even if Carlson had “engaged in subpar journalism,” it didn’t mean he had acted with malicious intent, which Epps would have had to prove in order to win his defamation claim.
The judge further found that the guests Carlson brought on his show to discuss Epps were only sharing their “own commentary and opinions,” and noted that Carlson would sometimes acknowledge Epps’ own denial that he was working on behalf of the federal government at the time of the insurrection, the Times reported.
As Law&Crime has previously reported, Epps was seen in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 participating in various activities in support of then-President Donald Trump, including attending the so-called “Stop the Steal” rally that proceeded the march on the Capitol building. At one point, he was seen talking with accused Proud Boys members who were part of the charge at the area known as the Peace Circle that resulted in at least one police officer suffering a head injury.
The fact that Epps wasn’t arrested shortly after the riot — and that he was removed from the FBI’s Most Wanted list after reaching out to federal investigators himself — gave rise to the theory that Epps was a federal plant, sent to rile up the pro-Trump crowd and lead them into a “false flag” operation.
Epps has consistently denied these allegations. He testified in January of 2022 before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that while he did encourage pro-Trump protesters to head toward the Capitol, he never entered the building. He also said that he tried to talk people down from committing violence.
Epps himself faced criminal misdemeanor charges in connection with Jan. 6. He was sentenced in January by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee, to one year of probation.
The ruling marks the third significant recent legal win for the network. On Tuesday, a federal judge dismissed Hunter Biden antagonist Tony Bobulinski’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and “The Five” co-host Jessica Tarlov over statements Tarlov made on-air linking Bobulinski to a conservative super PAC.
In July, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit brought by Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the since-disbanded federal Disinformation Governance Board. Jankowicz had alleged that she had received online attacks and threats of violence after commentators on Fox criticized the board. U.S. District Judge Colm Connolly, a Trump appointee, found that 36 of 37 of the alleged defamatory statements were about the board and not Jankowicz herself.
“Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime.
