DOVER, Del. — A former Donald Trump supporter who grew to become the middle of a conspiracy concept about Jan. 6, 2021, filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to 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 pressured from his Arizona residence due to threats, is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial.
He filed his lawsuit in Superior Court in Delaware, the identical courtroom the place Dominion Voting Systems 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 costs.
Fox didn’t reply to texts, telephone calls and emails searching for touch upon Epps’ lawsuit.
The swimsuit additionally says the Justice Department informed Epps in May that he faces legal expenses for his actions on Jan. 6, and blames that on “the relentless attacks by Fox and Mr. Carlson and the resulting political pressure.”
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 bother that may be blamed on Trump supporters, the lawsuit claims.
“In the aftermath of the events of January 6th, Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican Party,” the lawsuit says. “Eventually, they turned on one of their own.”
Although 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 fact that Epps was a government informant,” the lawsuit says. “And they believed him.”
Carlson ignored proof that contradicted his concept, together with Epps’ testimony earlier than a congressional committee investigating the rebel that he was not working for the federal government, and movies offered by House 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 employee of Fox when he lied about Ray, and Fox broadcast those defamatory falsehoods.”
“Fox is therefore fully liable for Mr. Carlson’s statements,” Teter mentioned.
The former Fox star didn’t reply to a textual content message searching for remark.
Also Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray, in an look earlier than the House Judiciary Committee, denied having any data of Epps being a “secret government agent.”
“I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous,” Wray informed lawmakers. He refused to say, nevertheless, how lots of the individuals who entered the Capitol and surrounding space on Jan. 6 had been both FBI workers or folks with whom the FBI had made contact.
Meanwhile, Epps claims in his lawsuit that, because of the alleged defamatory statements made by Fox, he and his spouse have been the goal of harassment and dying threats from Trump supporters, pressured to promote the Arizona ranch the place they ran a profitable marriage ceremony venue enterprise, and now face monetary smash. According to the lawsuit, Epps and his spouse are actually dwelling in a leisure automobile in Utah.
The lawsuit shows threatening messages Epps says he acquired, together with one which reads, “Epps, sleep with one eye open.”
In his defamation swimsuit, 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 character Anthime Gionet, was sentenced earlier this 12 months to 60 days in jail.
Epps says that in an effort to influence Trump supporters that he was on their aspect, he informed them, “I’m probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol. Peacefully.”
Epps claims within the lawsuit that he was “shocked and disappointed” when demonstrators began climbing the scaffolding and partitions across the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“He had concerns about the election and believed it was his duty as a citizen to participate in the protest. But he did not believe violence was appropriate,” the lawsuit claims.
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