Ray Epps was filmed repeatedly urging fellow Cease the Steal demonstrators to “go into the Capitol”
January 6 rioter Ray Epps, one of many alleged instigators of the unauthorized entry into the US Capitol on that date, was sentenced to only a yr’s probation on Tuesday, regardless of his outstanding position within the unrest. He should full 100 hours of neighborhood service and pay a $500 restitution charge.
The unusually gentle sentence – different defendants, together with some who by no means entered the Capitol or weren’t even in Washington, DC have been handed custodial sentences of 20 years or extra – in addition to the court docket’s determination to permit Epps to “telephone in” to his sentencing listening to revived suspicions that he might have been working for the FBI or one other company when he repeatedly urged teams of protesters to enter the constructing.
Epps might be seen urging a number of totally different teams to enter the Capitol in footage posted to social media by fellow Cease the Steal protesters on January 6 and the evening earlier than. In a single clip, fellow demonstrator Tim Gionet (higher generally known as YouTube streamer Baked Alaska) responds by initiating a chant of “Fed!” – accusing Epps of being a federal agent.
“No jail time for Ray Epps! Completely not a fed btw,” Gionet wrote in a submit on X (previously Twitter) on Tuesday following the sentencing.
“In the meantime, there are really peaceable protesters ROTTING in jail merely for wandering onto Capitol grounds,” commentator Nick Sortor wrote in a submit on X.
Whereas Epps initially appeared on the FBI’s “needed” web page for January 6 protesters, he was quickly eliminated with out being arrested, main many to suspect he had been working with the company or another authorities entity to rile up the group.
After quite a few conservative influencers, together with former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson, publicly accused Epps of being an agent tasked with “stage-manag[ing] the riot,” he was lastly arrested – and promptly sued Fox Information. The community had unjustly used him as a “scapegoat,” he claimed, accusing Fox of “selling the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the assault on the Capitol.”
Epps would later declare he had tried to “defuse the state of affairs” on the Capitol, insisting he was “shocked and upset” to see folks climbing the federal government constructing’s partitions in the course of the riot.
A lot of these charged in reference to January 6 acquired harsh sentences no matter their proximity to the precise riot. Proud Boys chief (and federal informant) Enrique Tarrio, who was not in Washington, DC on that date, acquired 22 years, whereas Man Reffitt, whose personal son turned him into the FBI, acquired seven years regardless of remaining exterior the Capitol in the course of the unrest. Almost two-thirds of January 6 defendants – and there have been greater than 1,230 – acquired a custodial sentence, in line with the Related Press.
Supply hyperlink
