Just this week, barely days before the third anniversary of the infamous Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department revealed its suggested punishment for the second-most recognizable figure of that time.
The feds told a U.S. District Court judge in Washington that Ray Epps deserved six months in jail for his role in the melee. Prosecutors also asked for Epps to pay $500 in restitution and undergo a year of supervised release.
The recommendation came after Epps, an Arizona resident, pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor.
As the Tampa Free Press has reported, Epps, who was the best-known figure from the riot after Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” went almost three years after the riot without being charged, despite appearing on video on Jan. 5 and 6 urging people to crash the U.S. Capitol as the 2020 presidential election was being certified.
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The feds’ longtime unwillingness to pursue Epps led many conservatives to allege that he was, in fact, a federal informant — something Epps repeatedly denied.
Prosecutors said in court records that Epps’ sentence was deserved because he helped “gather a crowd to storm the Capitol,” and because of his “presence among the vanguard of rioters that overwhelmed police at three key breach points” and his “participation in a rugby scrum-like group effort to push past the same line of police officers.”
“The Court must also consider that Epps’ conduct on January 6, like the conduct of scores of other defendants, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm police, breach the Capitol, and disrupt the proceedings,” prosecutors argued.
Prosecutors also noted that while Epps “engaged in felonious conduct” during the riot, he deserves mercy from the court because he turned himself, cooperated with both the FBI and Congress, attempted at least five efforts to de-escalate the hostility on Jan. 6, and “expressed what appears to be sincere remorse.”
On Thursday, Revolver News, which has reportedly extensively on Epps and the feds’ kid-gloves treatment of him, noted one other aspect that doesn’t add up of Epps’ case: the feds went easy on him, as noted in court records, because he “has been the target of a false and widespread conspiracy theory that he was an undercover government agent on January 6.”
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Revolver News noted that even that explanation doesn’t add up —as the Biden administration has promoted J6 “as a 9/11-style domestic terror event in order to justify the weaponization of the national security state against Trump supporters.”
For one thing, Epps is the only person on video openly calling for Trump supporters to invade the Capitol, both the night before the riot and as the violence unfolded the next day.
For another, even as his role on J6 became more prominent, largely because of Revolver News’ reporting, the feds continued to leave Epps alone.
Yet he gets six months while Enrique Tarrio, the alleged leader of the Proud Boys, who wasn’t even in Washington as the riot occurred, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Similarly, Stewart Rhodes, an Oath Keeper leader like Epps, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
In its report, Revolver News said it is “absurd to dismiss the overwhelming weight of evidence that Epps was not an authentic actor on January 6th.”
As one example, Revolver News noted that in 2021 the FBI removed Epps from its list of the 20 most wanted J6 suspects after the outlet published a story documenting his role in what it dubs the “Fedsurrection.”
Revolver News suggested that Epps’ recommended sentence is intended to distract from his participation and potential role as a fed informant.
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“Now, with the damning facts about Epps out there in the open to the point that Epps has almost become a household name, the regime is desperately trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube,” the outlet noted. “What could they possibly do to salvage the official, approved (and false) version of events? Well, they could slap a misdemeanor charge on Epps three years after January 6th and hope that the public is dumb enough to conclude, ‘Well, they were a little late, but they did slap a misdemeanor charge on him, so I guess there’s nothing to see here.’”
“Sadly for the DOJ and the regime, the American public is not that stupid,” Revolver News added. “Everyone sees this Hail Mary misdemeanor as the desperate attempt that it is to tie up the loose ends of the Fedsurrection on its third anniversary.”
“Not only are the American people not buying it, but over the course of the next two months, things are about to get significantly worse for the Regime. We have some loose ends of our own on the Fedsurrection, and we fully intend on addressing them. Stay tuned.”
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