Arizona Man Cited in Conspiracy Theories Sues Fox News for Defamation

Ray Epps, the person on the middle of a widespread conspiracy concept in regards to the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Fox News and its former host Tucker Carlson of defamation for selling a “fantastical story” that Mr. Epps was an undercover authorities agent who instigated the violence on the Capitol as a approach to disparage then-President Trump and his supporters.

The criticism was filed in Superior Court in Delaware, the place Fox not too long ago agreed to a $787.5 million settlement in a separate defamation case introduced towards the community by Dominion Voting Systems to fight claims that the corporate had helped to rig the 2020 election towards Mr. Trump.

“Just as Fox had focused on voting machine companies when falsely claiming a rigged election, Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th,” the criticism says. “It settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol.”

Fox News didn’t instantly reply when requested for remark. But the community moved shortly to have the venue modified to Federal District Court in Wilmington, Del.

The swimsuit is the most recent authorized complication for Fox News, which has been combating lawsuits on numerous fronts associated to its protection of the 2020 election and Mr. Trump’s false insistence that he was cheated of victory. They embrace a $2.7 billion swimsuit from a second voting know-how firm, Smartmatic, and two separate claims by Fox Corporation shareholders. Another lawsuit from a former producer for Mr. Carlson, which Fox settled on June 30 for $12 million, alleged that he condoned and inspired a poisonous office.

Mr. Epps is looking for an unspecified quantity in damages.

After the unfounded accusations about Mr. Epps had been aired on Mr. Carlson’s present, they shortly unfold to on-line communities of Trump supporters and to the political world as Republican members of Congress tried to hyperlink Mr. Epps to a fictitious conspiracy concept that he was concerned in planning the Jan. 6 assault. They included Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, each of whom made Mr. Epps — a two-time Trump voter — a spotlight of concern at public hearings.

The publicity had damaging penalties for Mr. Epps and his spouse, Robyn, who acquired quite a few demise threats and had been pressured to promote their five-acre ranch and wedding ceremony enterprise in Arizona and transfer right into a 350-square-foot cell residence parked at a distant trailer park within the mountains of Utah. Online retailers started promoting T-shirts that mentioned “Arrest Ray Epps.” Some individuals even recorded songs about him and posted them on YouTube, the criticism states, including how he had been diminished “into a character in a cartoonish conspiracy theory.”

Mr. Epps was within the Marine Corps however mentioned beneath oath in his deposition earlier than the Jan. 6 committee that he had in any other case by no means labored for legislation enforcement or spoke with anybody at varied authorities companies, together with the F.B.I., C.I.A. and N.S.A. Through his lawyer, Michael Teter, Mr. Epps demanded in March that Fox and Mr. Carlson retract its tales about him and his purported function within the Capitol riot and problem an on-air apology. Neither the community nor Mr. Carlson, whose prime-time present has since been canceled, responded.

“Ray is taking the next steps to vindicate his rights by seeking accountability for Fox’s lies that have caused him and Robyn so much harm.” Mr. Teter mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.

The swimsuit paints an image of Mr. Epps as a loyal Fox viewer who was duped by Fox’s protection and satisfied that he wanted to attend the pro-Trump demonstrations on and round Jan. 6.

“When Fox, through its on-air personalities and guests, told its audience that the 2020 election had been stolen, Epps was listening,” the criticism says. “He believed Fox. And when Epps kept hearing that Trump supporters should let their views be known on Jan. 6 in Washington D.C., Epps took that to heart.”

The conspiracy theories about Mr. Epps have lived on largely as a result of the Justice Department has by no means charged him for his actions on Jan. 6 and the evening earlier than. Mr. Epps may be seen on video encouraging demonstrators to march with him and enter the Capitol at one level. At one other level, nonetheless, he pleads for restraint as soon as it turns into clear the state of affairs is popping violent. He additionally pushes previous a police barricade right into a restricted a part of the Capitol grounds.

But in May, the lawsuit says, the Justice Department notified Mr. Epps that it was planning to file legal costs towards him associated to his function within the Capitol assault. Details in regards to the costs stay unknown, however the truth that they’re being filed undermines the notion that Mr. Epps was being protected due to his function as a supposed covert agent, the swimsuit says.

The assaults on Mr. Epps started in mid-2021, largely after a video surfaced on-line exhibiting him on the evening earlier than the Capitol assault, encouraging a crowd on a road in Washington to hitch in “peacefully” coming into the Capitol. Some within the crowd start chanting “Fed! Fed! Fed!” at him, implying he was a authorities agent making an attempt to goad Trump supporters into committing against the law.

He can also be seen on the day of the assault whispering into a person’s ear simply moments earlier than the person and different rioters overcome cops and breach the safety perimeter. It is tough to listen to what Mr. Epps says within the video. But promoters of the conspiracy theories about him have used that second to accuse him of uttering some form of command.

Law enforcement instantly took word of Mr. Epps’s suspicious habits and put an image of him on an internet wished record. Mr. Epps has mentioned he referred to as the F.B.I.’s National Threat Operations Center shortly after the alert went up, and his telephone data present he spoke to brokers there for almost an hour.

In March 2021, Mr. Epps was formally interviewed by the F.B.I. By that summer season, the bureau had eliminated him from the record of wished suspects.

“That should have been the end of the matter for Epps,” the criticism mentioned.

Instead, the criticism claimed, Mr. Carlson and Fox settled on Mr. Epps as a “villain” who may function a distraction from the community’s personal “culpability for stoking the fire that led to the events of January 6th.” Mr. Carlson, it mentioned, grew to become “fixated on Epps” and started the selling the concept Mr. Epps and the federal authorities had been liable for the Capitol riots.

The criticism spells out how over the subsequent a number of months, Mr. Carlson referred to Mr. Epps repeatedly on air, saying that he was “the central figure” within the Capitol assault and claiming that he had “helped stage-manage the insurrection.”

On a number of events, Mr. Carlson introduced on to his present Darren Beattie, the proprietor of a right-wing web site referred to as Revolver News, whom the criticism describes as “the principal person driving the false story that Epps was a federal agent planted as a provocateur to trigger the Capitol violence on January 6th.”

And Mr. Carlson continued to unfold unfounded accusations about Mr. Epps outdoors of Fox, the criticism says. As not too long ago as March, the host appeared on a podcast and instructed the previous Fox News character Clayton Morris, “Ray Epps clearly was working for somebody. He was not a pure civilian.”