ray epps FF DS BS
see deep state, conspir, false flag
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1 24 mma
In the years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which was spurred by then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to retain power, right-wing media figures have repeatedly whitewashed the violent attack, pushed misinformation and conspiracy theories about it, and defended its participants.
As a result, the initial consensus of the horrors of the day has disappeared, with Republicans reportedly “now less likely to believe that Jan. 6 participants were ‘mostly violent,’ less likely to believe Trump bears responsibility for the attack, and … slightly less likely to view Joe Biden’s election as legitimate.”
The following right-wing media personalities have been critical in the push to downplay January 6, and they have continued their apologia for the violent crowd that sought to overturn an election.
no lnx
no grf
Darren Beattie
Beattie was a speechwriter and policy aide for then-President Trump who was fired in 2018 for attending a white nationalist conference two years before. In 2020, he founded right-wing site Revolver News, with Trump himself praising the outlet’s commentary. Beattie has repeatedly pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that the FBI, in connection with an undercover agent named Ray Epps, helped to incite the January 6 riot.
2021: Beattie spread a conspiracy theory that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick’s death was not a result of injuries sustained in the attack, calling his claims “the most important story Revolver has ever run.” Fox’s Tucker Carlson also highlighted the story, calling it an “exhaustive and fascinating new analysis.” [Media Matters, 2/12/21]
2022: Beattie and his news outlet, Revolver News, were crucial in pushing the false claim that Capitol rioter Ray Epps was an undercover FBI agent who duped the crowd into entering the Capitol building. Epps has sued Fox News, and his suit describes Beattie as “the principal person driving the false story that Epps was a federal agent planted as a provocateur to trigger the Capitol violence on January 6th.” [Media Matters, 1/19/22; The New York Times, 7/12/23]
2023-present: Beattie has continued to falsely allege that Epps was a federal agent, claiming he was treated leniently for that reason. In posts on X from September, Beattie claimed that “charging Ray Epps now for ‘disorderly conduct’ is not going to make the Feds' credibility problem go away.” Beattie additionally called the government’s case against Epps “a phony charge” that “will only make things worse for the Fed narrative.” He also suggested that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag and said that the Justice Department and FBI should “at least do us the courtesy of a high effort cover up like you did with OKC” for January 6. [Media Matters, 9/21/23; Twitter/X, 9/19/23, 9/19/23, 9/19/23, 9/19/23]
DB Tweet Collage
Julie Kelly
Kelly is a prolific conspiracy theorist who has written for a number of conservative outlets, mainly American Greatness, National Review, and The Federalist. Then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave Kelly and former Trump adviser John Solomon special access to security camera footage from the Capitol attack, as she claimed that conservatives were being unjustly persecuted.
2021: Kelly called January 6 Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone a “crisis actor.” [Media Matters, 7/27/21]
2022: On One America News, Kelly pushed a conspiracy theory that the FBI fabricated pipe bombs that were discovered at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. the night before the January 6 riot. Kelly also published a book where she claimed that the Biden administration is weaponizing January 6 to persecute conservatives and criminalize political protest. [One America News, Tipping Point with Kara McKinney, 2/16/22; Google Books, accessed 1/5/23, Post Hill Press, accessed 1/5/24]
2023-present: Kelly repeatedly spread the Epps conspiracy theory, and when Epps was charged, she questioned why he wasn’t charged with more crimes, posting, “No obstruction felony? No civil disorder charge? Not even a trespassing on restricted grounds misdemeanor?” Kelly also claimed that the Biden’s Justice Department has “successfully criminalized political speech and activity.” In May, then-Speaker McCarthy reportedly gave Kelly special access to security camera footage from the Capitol attack. [Media Matters, 9/21/23, 5/31/23; The Washington Post, 6/6/23; Premiere Networks, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, 3/23/23]
Julie Kelly claims that January 6 prosecutions are a silencing free speech and destroying lives
MARCH 23, 2023
Julie Kelly claims that January 6 prosecutions are a silencing free speech and destroying lives
:{Audio
CitationFrom the March 23, 2023, edition of Premiere Networks' The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Tucker Carlson
As a Fox prime-time host, Carlson relentlessly downplayed the January 6 insurrection and promoted the conspiracy theory that Ray Epps, whom he posited was a federal agent or FBI informant, incited the riot. Carlson also repeatedly hosted Beattie and Kelly to push misinformation about the attack.
2021: Carlson put out a revisionist January 6-focused series that suggested the attack was a “false flag.” In an interview with Kelly, Carlson said the left used officer Brian Sicknick’s death “as a political weapon” and that his state funeral was “fake.” “Completely fabricated,” agreed Kelly. Carlson also hosted Beattie and cited an article in which he suggested the January 6 attack may have been orchestrated by FBI operatives. [Media Matters, 11/2/21, 11/4/21, 6/16/21, 6/17/21; Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/1/21]
2022: Carlson defended the rioters as “passionately patriotic Americans” “who genuinely love America” and on the one-year anniversary of January 6 he downplayed the violence as “just barely” a riot. As a guest on Carlson’s show, Beattie also called January 6 “a clear hoax” planned and carried out by “the feds.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/8/22, 1/6/22, 6/9/22]
Early 2023: Carlson continued to downplay the severity of the January 6 riot, calling the rioters “nonviolent … protesters” and “patriotic Americans.” He also said January 6 was “probably second only to the 2020 election as the biggest scam in my lifetime.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/21/23, 3/14/23]
April 2023-present: After Carlson was fired in April from Fox, he appeared on a Spaces live chat on X (formerly Twitter) and continued to downplay the insurrection. [Twitter/X, 12/12/23]
:{Video
CitationFrom a December 12, 2023, X Space
Steve Bannon
Since he left the Trump administration in 2017, Steve Bannon has hosted War Room — a podcast for Real America’s Voice — where he has frequently defended those involved in the insurrection. Bannon has also hosted both Beattie and Kelly to also push conspiracy theories about January 6.
2021: Leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Bannon bragged on his podcast about his role in working to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. [Media Matters, 10/29/21]
2022: Bannon defended the Proud Boys ahead of one of Congress’ January 6 hearings, referring to the organization, whose leaders have since been convicted for their role in the January 6 attack, as a “rag tag beer drinking group.” Bannon also repeatedly made false claims that U.S. Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger’s death was an intentional homicide, comparing it to older right-wing conspiracy theories around the suicide of Clinton administration official Vince Foster. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 6/9/22; CNN, 9/1/23; Media Matters, 6/29/22]
2023-present: Bannon is still hosting his podcast, War Room, where he has continued to downplay the insurrection, including dismissing Trump's role by stating that Trump was “doing his duty” to “make sure that the 2020 election had been fairly decided” and continuing to insist that the 2020 election was stolen. [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 8/2/23]
:{Video
CitationFrom the August 2, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room
Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk, who co-founded the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, has repeatedly downplayed the insurrection and accused Ray Epps of being a federal agent.
2021: In the immediate aftermath of January 6, Kirk downplayed the attack, saying that “just because you do something that is regrettable does not mean that you are planning an armed insurrection against the United States government." [Newsweek, 1/12/21]
2022: Kirk pushed the Epps conspiracy theory, posting to X that Epps “texted his nephew ‘I orchestrated it’” and claiming that he is the “only man caught on camera actively calling for people to enter the Capitol and riot.” In another post, Kirk said, “If the FBI knows who Ray Epps is, why haven't they arrested him yet?” [Twitter/X, 1/11/22, 12/30/22]
2023-present: Kirk continues to run Turning Point USA and has repeatedly promoted far-right talking points, including false claims about January 6. On his eponymous show, Kirk has primed his audience to prepare for “another January 6” over Trump’s various indictments and called on a future administration to “get some pardons done” for the January 6 insurrectionists. [Media Matters, 9/22/23, 11/21/23; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 1/3/24, 12/7/23, 7/28/23, 1/6/23; Twitter/X, 9/19/23]
CHarlie Kirk Epps tweet 1
The Gateway Pundit
The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website that frequently pushes conspiracy theories and hoaxes, and Editor-in-Chief Jim Hoft have repeatedly claimed that the January 6 insurrection was a false flag operation organized by federal law enforcement.
2021: The Gateway Pundit was reportedly a favorite source for Donald Trump in the lead-up to January 6. According to The Washington Post, “In the weeks before he left office in 2021, Trump brandished printouts of Gateway Pundit articles questioning the results of the election.” In May 2021, a few months after the insurrection, Hoft published an article claiming that someone inside the Capitol unlocked the doors for the rioters, citing an anonymous member of the Oath Keepers — a group with several members who have since been convicted for their roles on January 6. [The Washington Post, 1/3/24; The Gateway Pundit, 5/24/21; Politico, 1/23/23]
2022: Hoft doubled down on the claim that “someone inside the security booth at the US Capitol opened the doors” in a Gateway Pundit article titled “WE WERE RIGHT. ” In another article, Hoft claimed that instead of investigating the Oath Keepers’ involvement in January 6, “the FBI would have better luck if they looked at their trained operatives instead who were leading the charge on the Capitol building.” [Twitter/X, 6/13/22; The Gateway Pundit, 1/29/22, 8/24/22]
2023-present: Hoft and The Gateway Pundit remain a source of conspiracy theories about January 6. Hoft has penned several stories alleging that Ray Epps’ criminal charges and sentencing are proof that he was a federal agent and said President Joe Biden “will use the J6 anniversary to accuse Trump supporters of being white supremacists.” [The Gateway Pundit, 1/2/24, 9/19/23, 1/3/24]
Laura Ingraham
Fox News host Laura Ingraham has used her prime-time platform to repeatedly claim that January 6 was a “false flag operation” orchestrated by “antifa” or federal agents.
2021: Ingraham suggested “antifa sympathizers” were behind the January 6 attack, citing a Washington Times article that was later debunked. [The New York Times, 3/1/21]
2022: Ingraham cited Darren Beattie’s Revolver News on her show on Fox to argue that “Epps may have led the breach team that first entered the Capitol on January 6.” [Media Matters, 1/19/22]
2023-present: Ingraham has used her prime-time slot on Fox News to continuously defend Trump and attack those who are involved in the legal cases against him over his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. She has also whitewashed the Capitol insurrectionists as “old ladies walking through the halls of Congress taking selfies.” [Media Matters, 11/01/23; Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/10/23, 8/7/23, 3/29/23]
:{Video
CitationFrom the March 29, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle
Infowars
Prolific conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars co-host Owen Shroyer were part of the crowd on January 6. Shroyer has since celebrated the insurrection while Jones has claimed that any violence that occurred was caused by antifa or federal agents.
2021: Jones responded to the FBI’s investigation into his involvement in the insurrection by claiming that “we know who did it: antifa with some paramilitary groups all together, which are going to turn out to be feds with idiots they provocateured to be part of it, the Q people,” calling it “the modern Reichstag 2.0.” Shroyer stated that “we should have been proud of what happened on January 6.” [Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 1/14/21, 5/17/21]
2022: Jones claimed that when investigated by the January 6 committee, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment “almost 100 times.” [Texas Tribune, 4/28/22]
2023-present: Jones celebrated Tucker Carlson’s revisionist history of the insurrection, claiming the footage Carlson aired showed that “January 6 was an inside job.” In the days before Shroyer was sentenced to two months in prison for leading a portion of the crowd on January 6, Jones claimed that the government was “asking for prison time for a man that did nothing and was there with me trying to stop people going to the Capitol because he still says he thinks the election was stolen.” [Media Matters, 2/28/23; Infowars, The Alex Jones Show, 9/6/23; PBS, PBS NewsHour, 9/12/23]
:{Video
CitationFrom the February 20, 2023, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show
Newsmax’s Greg Kelly
In the wake of January 6, Newsmax prime-time host Greg Kelly has repeatedly whitewashed the violence at the Capitol on his show, claiming that Trump supporters were allowed into the building or set up by federal law enforcement and unfairly prosecuted.
2021: Kelly claimed that the insurrection was “a trap to make Trump supporters, the MAGA movement, look bad,” and alleged that police were “not doing anything” and had ushered insurrectionists into the Capitol. Kelly later claimed the insurrection was a “false flag operation” staged by federal law enforcement. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 9/16/21, 11/3/21]
2022: Kelly continued to claim that Capitol Police and other federal agents “stood by” and that insurrectionists were “let in” to the Capitol. He also claimed that the rioters who called for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged were “speaking metaphorically” and downplayed the makeshift gallow that were erected nearby. [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 6/16/22]
2023-present: Kelly doubled down with the claim that January 6 insurrectionists were invited into the Capitol by police, claiming that it is “actually not true” that rioters violently breached the Capitol. He has also repeatedly defended Trump’s increasingly hostile campaign rhetoric, dismissing comparisons of the former president to Adolf Hitler and saying he is “a madman, and that is a good thing.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 11/17/23, 11/13/23, 10/19/23]
:{Video
CitationFrom the November 17, 2023, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
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https://sputnikglobe.com/20230713/fbi-chief-pushes-back-on-claims-agency-was-involved-in-capitol-riot-1111844449.html
FBI Chief Pushes Back on Claims Agency Was Involved in Capitol Riot
14 hours ago
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 13.07.2023
© AFP2023 / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency was not involved in any operation that led to the January 6 riots, an answer that appeared to frustrate US Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) during a House judiciary committee hearing.
Nehls asked Wray why the FBI had not arrested Ray Epps, once number 16 on the agency's most wanted list, who is shown on video encouraging people to attack the Capitol. Nehls also said many feel Epps was a "fed," suggesting the man was a federal government informant.
"If you are suggesting that the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources or FBI agents, the answer is no, it was not," Wray said when asked why Epps was not arrested for breaching the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
"And to suggest otherwise is a disservice to our hardworking, dedicated law enforcement professionals."
Nehls at the end of his remarks said "shame on you," to the FBI chief.
US media reported that Epps' photo briefly appeared on an FBI website seeking information about the protests, but was removed in July of 2021 after being interviewed by agents.
Earlier Wednesday, outlets reported Epps sued Fox News over former host Tucker Carlson's comments suggesting the man was a government informant involved with instigating the Capitol riots.
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man who participated in the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol and subsequently became the face of a Fox News conspiracy theory is suing the network for defamation, correspondents Alan Feuer and Jeremy W. Peters reported in The New York Times on Wednesday.
Ray Epps is "seeking an unspecified amount in damages" for the character assassination that he allegedly endured from fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson's "'fantastical story' that Mr. Epps was an undercover government agent who instigated the violence at the Capitol as a way to disparage then-President Trump and his supporters," Feuer and Peters wrote.
"Just as Fox had focused on voting machine companies when falsely claiming a rigged election, Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th," Epps' complaint states, according to Delaware Superior Court documents reviewed by the Times. Fox "settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol."
"After the unfounded accusations about Mr. Epps were aired on Mr. Carlson's show," Feuer and Peters explained, "they quickly spread to online communities of Trump supporters and to the political world as Republican members of Congress tried to link Mr. Epps to a fictitious conspiracy theory that he was involved in planning the Jan. 6 attack. They includedSenator Ted Cruz of Texas and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, both of whom made Mr. Epps — a two-time Trump voter — a focus of concern at public hearings."
Fox's false narrative "had damaging consequences for Mr. Epps and his wife, Robyn,who received numerous death threats and were forced to sell their five-acre ranch and wedding business in Arizona and move into a 350-square-foot mobile home parked at a remote trailer park in the mountains of Utah," per theTimes. "Online retailers began selling T-shirts that said 'Arrest Ray Epps.' Some people even recorded songs about him and posted them on YouTube, the complaint states, adding how he had been reduced 'into a character in a cartoonish conspiracy theory.'"
Epps' attorney, Michael Teter, noted that although his client "demanded in March that Fox and Mr. Carlson retract its stories about him and his purported role in the Capitol riot and issue an on-air apology, neither the network nor Mr. Carlson, whose prime-time show has since been canceled, responded."
Despite never being criminally charged for his role in the Capitol attack, the Times added, "Mr. Carlson and Fox settled on Mr. Epps as a 'villain' who could serve as a distraction from the network's own 'culpability for stoking the fire that led to the events of January 6th.' Mr. Carlson, it said, became 'fixated on Epps' and began the promoting the idea that Mr. Epps and the federal government were responsible for the Capitol riots.
mma tucker epr
FBI, Ray Epps, and pipe bombs
Carlson pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that January 6 was a government plot instigated by FBI
informant Ray Epps despite a lack of evidence. The January 6 committee confirmed that Epps had “informed
us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan
5th or 6th or at any other time, & that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement
agency.” Carlson used the same strategy to push an unsubstantiated claim that the FBI planted pipe bombs near
the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021.
• Carlson questioned why Ray Epps’ photo had been taken off the FBI website without his having been
charged with anything. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/5/22]
• Carlson hosted Darren Beattie from the conspiracy theorist website Revolver News to suggest that
GOP officials are not interested in Epps “because what the evidence suggests is arguably one of the
biggest scandals in American history,” that government officials instigated the insurrection. [Fox
News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/6/22]
• After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the January 6 insurrection a “violent terrorist attack,” the senator
groveled before Carlson, apologizing for using “sloppy and … frankly dumb” language. Carlson then
pressured Cruz to embrace his claim that the January 6 riot was instigated by the FBI. The next week,
Cruz brought January 6 conspiracy theories into a congressional hearing. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson
Tonight, 1/6/22]
• Carlson stated that it was “obvious” based on video evidence that “the Department of Justice probably
had some role in the events of January 6th.” Carlson then highlighted Cruz and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-
AR) raising the conspiracy theories in a congressional hearing. Carlson continued to implicate Epps
as “maybe the central figure there” and dismissed Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R-IL) debunk of the theory.
[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/11/22]
• Carlson again doubled down on the conspiracy theory, saying, “Adam Kinzinger loves Ray Epps. He’s
spent the last 24 hours sticking up for Ray Epps on Twitter against all comers. How strange is that?
It’s impossible to overstate the strangeness.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/12/22]
• Carlson claimed that the January 6 committee was “lying about Ray Epps.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson
Tonight, 1/21/22]
• Carlson suggested that a pipe bomb found near then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ location on
January 6 could have been placed there by the FBI. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/9/22]
• Carlson devoted a monologue to Epps: “One man was actually caught on camera planning an
insurrection, encouraging a breach of the Capitol complex. That man’s name is Ray Epps.” He claimed
that to ask questions about Epps is equivalent to “committing a moral crime” and mocked the
harassment Epps has faced as a result of the conspiracy. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/14/22]
• Carlson again suggested the FBI planted pipe bombs outside the DNC headquarters as a part of a
January 6 conspiracy. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/16/22]
Insurrectionists were not carrying guns
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JESSE KELLY (HOST): The story has been making the rounds just a little bit, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. So I want to get to a bunch of emails and we are talking about Christmas parties here and things like that, but this is from Yahoo: "Intel analyst tried to prevent the January 6th attack, but DHS failed to act."
And there's so much of this that is just dripping with irony. One of the top things that I can think of is this: the DHS. You know why we have a DHS Department of Homeland Security. We have a DHS because after 9/11, when something horrible like that happens, people start looking around and asking, why? How did this happen? How did we not know how? How didn't we stop this?
And one of the conclusions they came to was all the separate government agencies, FBI, CIA, all the others. They don't coordinate with each other. They don't talk with each other. Oftentimes, they compete with each other for dollars and influence and publicity. And so they decided what we need is a Department of Homeland Security. And they decided we needed the Department of Homeland Security so we can make sure there aren't any more things slipping through the cracks. So whenever there's an action item, we can jump on it and jump in there.
And this is an intel analyst working for the DHS who spent two weeks sounding the alarm at the DHS that something potentially might happen at the Capitol and they did nothing. Which leads me to this. I believe the reason they did nothing is because they planned and coordinated most of what happened there anyway. And if you think I'm crazy, please go look up Ray Epps.
And Ray Epps is just the most famous one. He's not nearly the only one. All these January 6th political prisoners we have now, some still rotting in jail without trial. By the way, this is a human rights violation. Human rights violation. There are some of them still sitting in jail without any trial whatsoever. There are multiple people, multiple people who've been caught on camera doing much worse than lots of the political prisoners have done – and they're not on the most wanted list, not arrested. Not rotting in jail.
And couple that with a couple of things. One – one thing we know for a fact is maybe not every entrance, but many entrances. I know because I've seen the videotape myself – the Capitol Police opened the doors and stood aside and welcomed people in. I've talked to some of these people. They email in to the show, these January six prisoners. And this is one of the most common things they say, Jesse. They invited us in. We were walking in! And now we're criminals!
That's one. Two:You've seen little snippets. If you only watch the news, you only see these little, minor little snippets and they always look really, really bad and parts of it were really ugly. I'm not denying that, but I think it's really, really bad.
But what they don't show you is any context at all.
...
But anyway, did you know a lot of those grenades that were going off? Not – non-lethal grenades, like the non-lethal grenades that were going off, that the police started chucking those into the crowd before there was ever any real violence or anything like that in the crowd, almost as if – almost as if – they were trying to provoke a response. Well, how about that? Don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing.