DOVER, Del. — A former Donald Trump supporter who turned the middle of a conspiracy idea about Jan. 6, 2021, filed a defamation lawsuit towards Fox News on Wednesday, saying the community made him a scapegoat for the U.S. Capitol rebel.
Raymond Epps, a former Marine who mentioned he was compelled from his Arizona residence due to threats, is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial.
He filed his lawsuit in Superior Courtroom in Delaware, the identical court docket the place Dominion Voting Programs sued Fox for lies broadcast following the 2020 presidential election. Shortly earlier than a trial was to start this spring, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787 million to settle the fees.
Fox didn’t reply to texts, cellphone calls and emails searching for touch upon Epps’ lawsuit.
The go well with additionally says the Justice Division informed Epps in Might that he faces prison costs for his actions on Jan. 6, and blames that on “the relentless assaults by Fox and Mr. Carlson and the ensuing political strain.”
Epps, who had traveled to Washington for the Jan. 6 demonstration, was falsely accused by Fox of being a authorities agent who was whipping up hassle that might be blamed on Trump supporters, the lawsuit claims.
“Within the aftermath of the occasions of January sixth, Fox News looked for a scapegoat responsible aside from Donald Trump or the Republican Social gathering,” the lawsuit says. “Ultimately, they turned on one in all their very own.”
Though the lawsuit mentions Fox’s Laura Ingraham and Will Cain, former Fox host Tucker Carlson is cited because the chief in selling the idea. Epps was featured in additional than two dozen segments on Carlson’s prime-time present, the lawsuit mentioned. Fox News fired Carlson shortly after the Dominion settlement was introduced.
Carlson “was bluntly telling his viewers that it was a undeniable fact that Epps was a authorities informant,” the lawsuit says. “They usually believed him.”
Carlson ignored proof that contradicted his idea, together with Epps’ testimony earlier than a congressional committee investigating the rebel that he was not working for the federal government, and movies supplied by Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy that confirmed Epps’ efforts to attempt to defuse the state of affairs, the lawsuit says.
Carlson just isn’t named as a defendant within the lawsuit. Epps’ lawyer, Michael Teter, famous that Carlson “was an worker of Fox when he lied about Ray, and Fox broadcast these defamatory falsehoods.”
“Fox is subsequently totally accountable for Mr. Carlson’s statements,” Teter mentioned.
The previous Fox star didn’t reply to a textual content message searching for remark.
Additionally Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray, in an look earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee, denied having any information of Epps being a “secret authorities agent.”
“I’ll say this notion that someway the violence on the Capitol on January 6 was a part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and brokers is ludicrous,” Wray informed lawmakers. He refused to say, nonetheless, how lots of the individuals who entered the Capitol and surrounding space on Jan. 6 had been both FBI staff or individuals with whom the FBI had made contact.
In the meantime, Epps claims in his lawsuit that, on account of the alleged defamatory statements made by Fox, he and his spouse have been the goal of harassment and loss of life threats from Trump supporters, compelled to promote the Arizona ranch the place they ran a profitable wedding ceremony venue enterprise, and now face monetary destroy. In keeping with the lawsuit, Epps and his spouse at the moment are residing in a leisure car in Utah.
The lawsuit shows threatening messages Epps says he obtained, together with one which reads, “Epps, sleep with one eye open.”
In his defamation go well with, Epps claims that on Jan. 5, the day earlier than the storming of the Capitol, he tried to defuse a tense state of affairs between Trump supporters and police, confronting an agitator referred to within the lawsuit as “Baked Alaska.” That man, later recognized as far-right social media persona Anthime Gionet, was sentenced earlier this yr to 60 days in jail.
Epps says that in an effort to steer Trump supporters that he was on their facet, he informed them, “I’m in all probability gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we have to go into the Capitol. Peacefully.”
Epps claims within the lawsuit that he was “shocked and dissatisfied” when demonstrators began climbing the scaffolding and partitions across the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“He had considerations concerning the election and believed it was his obligation as a citizen to take part within the protest. However he didn’t consider violence was acceptable,” the lawsuit claims.
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Bauder reported from New York.
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