Was Ray Epps a Jan. 6 Fed Conspirator?

The delay in his charging, and the lone misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, fuels theories.

The headlines read: “Ray Epps Charged With Jan. 6 Crime—After Conspiracy Theory Claimed He Worked For FBI” (Forbes), “Ray Epps Charged Over Jan. 6 Riot, Dealing Major Blow to Tucker Carlson’s Conspiracy Theory” (Mediaite), “Feds charge Jan. 6 protester at center of unproven, hard-right conspiracy theories” (Politico).

The headlines and articles beneath imply that charging Mr. Epps, more than 30 months after the Capitol Hill riots, amounts to a refutation of the various conspiracy theories that depict him as an agent provocateur or some type of infiltrator. If anything, the delay, and the lone misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, fuels them.

When Tucker Carlson aired the security footage that rebutted numerous myths about the Capitol Hill riot on his old Fox News Channel program, I omitted discussion of Ray Epps — indeed, his name graces this newsletter for the first time — because I did not find the evidence of him in cahoots with the government compelling.

This does not make the claims against him wrong. It just indicates that the claims against him do not offer convincing proof of his cooperation with the feds that day.

The fact that he received a disorderly conduct charge — the type you get when you make a ruckus outside of a bar at 1:41 a.m. — 33 months after the fact when other defendants not present received significant jail time feeds into all sorts of conjecture.

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