Epps is an informant
A conspiracy theory takes hold
Four days after Massie aired the video, theright-wing website Revolver published a long article on Epps (a “Fed-Protected Provocateur”) by Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who had been fired because it was learned he had appeared at a conference with a white supremacist. He followed up with another lengthy article on Dec. 18, which claimed to expose a “massive web of unindicted operators.”
The articles are filled with innuendo, leaps of logic and suspicion to create an impression of a massive federal conspiracy at the heart of the Jan. 6 attack. Beattie suggests that Epps led a “breach team” that set a “booby trap” for unwitting Trump supporters. “If Ray Epps is a Fed, the ‘Insurrection’ becomes the ‘Fedsurrection’ in one fell swoop,” Beattie declared in the second article.
The Beattie articles were gobbled up in the pro-Trump echo chamber like cotton candy.
But the first article hung largely on two elements. First, that Rhodes had not been indicted and was thus “FBI-protected.” (He’s now indicted.) Second, that the Epps photo on the FBI website, photograph #16, had mysteriously disappeared. Beattie suggested a “panicked” FBI suddenly realized one of its operatives was in the public eye.
Blischak, Epps’s lawyer,scoffed at the notion that Epps is working for the FBI, either as an agent or informant. He said Epps was interviewed by the FBI a couple of months after Jan. 6. “I can tell you with confidence he is not an FBI informant,” he said.
He confirmedEpps also spoke in November to the select congressional committeeinvestigating the attack. The committee has issued a statement saying Epps denied acting at the directions of any federal agency.
The FBI, of course, declined to comment. ButMary McCord, a former acting assistant attorney general for national security, said the answer for why his photo was removed is simple. “The FBI no longer needs help identifying him,” she said. “It also seems from his attorney that he has been cooperative, so the FBI isn’t looking for him and has a way to reach him through counsel.” (Blischak told Politico that Epps reached out to the FBI on Jan. 8.)
Blischak said he had asked Epps why he spoke of going toward the Capitol. “He admitted making that statement but he anticipated that it would have been peaceful,” he said. “He’s a straight-up guy. He made it clear he did not condone any type of violence.”right
The Washington Examiner has noted that a woman,Raechel Genco, seen in a video standing next to Epps, has been charged with a count of trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds. Genco’s boyfriend, Ryan Samsel, took part in a breach of a police barrier, just shortly after Epps is observed whispering to him. When the barrier fell, one video shows Epps jogging past it toward the Capitol.
The charging documents include a still image of Genco on the steps of the Capitol building, well inside the restricted area. Epps, in one video, can be seen in the same area, telling another participant, “We’re holding ground — we’re not trying to get people hurt.”But Epps has not faced similar charges.
Video shows Trump supporter Ray Epps breaching the Capitol grounds following the destruction of secure fencing on Jan. 6. (@ElijahSchaffer | The Blaze) Blischak said he was unaware that Epps was in a restricted area. As for Epps whispering to Samsel, “probably — and this is my surmise — he is trying to tell people to calm down,” he said.
The Pinocchio Test
There isno evidence that Epps is a federal agent or informant. The available video evidence shows he was part of the crowd at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — a place where the day before he had said he would go — but no videos have emerged showing that he committed or urged acts of violence. He does not appear to have entered the Capitol building itself.
He has been interviewed by the FBI and his attorney sayshe has been cooperative. So there is no mystery why his photo is no longer on the FBI’s website asking for his identification. Epps may yet be charged. But in an event of this magnitude — hundreds of criminal cases — investigators must make choices all the time about whether a prosecution is worth the effort.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…cy-theory/
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