Participants in the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 demanded that Fox News host Tucker Carlson apologize on air for falsely claiming the man was a federal agent.
Ray Epps of Arizona is the target of right-wing conspiracy theories that claim he went to the Capitol protests as an FBI informant to provoke supporters of former President Donald Trump into violence. Epps, who has not been charged in connection with January 6 because he never entered the Capitol building, kept himself to Washington, DC, to support Trump.
That hasn’t stopped Carlson and others on the right from promoting the baseless claim that Epps is working with the government. Epps’ attorney, Michael Teter, sent a cease-and-desist letter Thursday to Carlson and Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar, demanding “a formal apology for the lies” about his client.
“Mr. Guests and contributors to Carlson and Fox News falsely referred to Mr. Epps as a federal agent, accusing him of acting as a riot provocateur,” Teter said in the letter, which HuffPost provided. peace. This leads to the obvious question: is Mr. Carlson now accusing Mr. Epps of making a peaceful protest?
Epps came to the attention of conspirators after he was recorded on the night of January 5, 2021, asking supporters to enter the Capitol for a day. Epps was also seen on video during the day’s riots trying to stop Trump supporters from attacking police.
In a rare statement released last year by the House committee investigating the attack, committee members concluded that Epps was not working with law enforcement.
“Mr. Epps testified that he did not work for, work with, or act under the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5 or 6 or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or other law enforcement. agency,” the committee said through a spokesman.
Even so, Carlson brought up Epps again in a segment earlier this month, still suggesting he was an FBI informant.
“What’s Epps doing there?” Carlson asked about the March 6 event. “We can’t say, but we know he lied to the investigators.”
Teter’s cease-and-desist letter comes amid a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. Dominion says Fox News helped spread Trump’s election despite knowing the claims were false.
As part of the lawsuit, hundreds of internal text messages from Fox personalities were released, showing that they pushed lies even though they knew they had no basis in reality.
“The new revelations from the Dominion Voting lawsuit make it clear that Fox News has zero qualms about lying to its viewers,” Teter wrote in a letter. “The fictional story that Mr. Carlson and Fox News told, and continues to tell, about Ray Epps is just another example. It’s time for Mr. Carlson and Fox News to stop the lies and make amends.
Teter’s letter demanded that Carlson and Fox submit written confirmation that they would “comply with the request” by March 31, or risk a lawsuit.