WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday really helpful a six-month time period of imprisonment for a person on the heart of a right-wing conspiracy concept in regards to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol — an assault that he has admitted to becoming a member of.
Ray Epps, who’s scheduled to be sentenced subsequent Tuesday, pleaded responsible in September to a misdemeanor cost of disorderly conduct on restricted grounds.
Epps, a onetime Donald Trump supporter from Arizona, grew to become the main target of a conspiracy concept that he was an undercover authorities agent who incited the Capitol assault. Proper-wing information retailers amplified the conspiracy concept and drove him into hiding after the Jan. 6 riot.
Epps, who labored as a roofer after serving 4 years as infantry within the U.S. Marine Corps, has vehemently denied ever working for the FBI. Assistant U.S. Lawyer Michael Gordon mentioned throughout Epps’ plea listening to in September that he was not a confidential supply for the FBI “or every other legislation enforcement company.”
Epps, 62, filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to Fox News Channel final 12 months, saying the community was guilty for spreading the baseless claims that led to demise threats and bullet casings in his yard.
In movies shared broadly on social media and right-wing web sites, Epps is seen the day earlier than the riot saying, “Tomorrow, we have to go into the Capitol … peacefully.” On Jan. 6, video reveals him saying, “As quickly because the president is completed talking, we go to the Capitol.”
Epps has mentioned he left Capitol grounds when he noticed folks scaling partitions and by no means truly went contained in the constructing.
Prosecutors say Epps participated in a “a rugby scrum-like group effort” to push previous a line of law enforcement officials.
“Even when Epps didn’t bodily contact legislation enforcement officers or go within the constructing, he undoubtedly engaged in collective aggressive conduct,” they wrote in a court docket submitting.
However in addition they famous that Epps turned himself in to the FBI two days after the riot after studying that brokers have been attempting to establish him. The false conspiracy concept about Epps not solely has harmed him “but additionally makes an attempt to undermine the integrity of the continuing and total federal prosecution,” prosecutors mentioned.
“Epps solely acted in furtherance of his personal misguided perception within the ‘lie’ that the 2020 presidential election had been ‘stolen,'” they wrote. “Nevertheless, as a result of outrage directed at Epps because of that false conspiracy concept, he has been pressured to promote his enterprise, transfer to a unique state, and reside reclusively.”
The cost to which Epps pleaded responsible is punishable by a most of 1 12 months behind bars.
Epps served as an Arizona chapter chief for the Oath Keepers earlier than parting methods with the anti-government extremist group just a few years earlier than the Jan. 6 assault.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and different members have been convicted of seditious conspiracy within the Jan. 6 assault for what prosecutors mentioned was a weekslong plot to cease the switch of energy from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Rhodes was sentenced in Might to 18 years in jail.
Greater than 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 900 of them have pleaded responsible or been convicted after trials determined by a choose or jury.
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