Former Marine Ray Epps has been charged with one count related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, officially debunking a popular conspiracy theory peddled by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
According to court documents, Epps was charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. According to NBC News, “He was charged by information, which suggests that he plans to enter a plea deal.”
Epps, a one-time chapter president for the Oath Keepers, became the subject of controversy after he was not immediately charged for his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6th.
According to The New York Times, Epps was “seen on video encouraging demonstrators to march with him and enter the Capitol at one point. At another point, however, he pleads for restraint once it becomes clear the situation is turning violent. He also pushes past a police barricade into a restricted part of the Capitol grounds.”
Popular primetime Fox News host Tucker Carlson promoted the conspiracy that Epps was actually an undercover federal agent helping incite the riot. Carlson has since been fired from the network however Epps recently filed a defamation suit against Fox.
“Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th. It settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol.”
NOPE – assessing him a disorderly conduct charge is not even close to dispensing with conspiracy theories. If anything such a minimal charge in the face of all of the video evidence merely makes those theories much more viable.