Ray Epps Matters Because He Bears The Weight of a Powerful Narrative. By Jack Cashill.
Who is Ray Epps?
“Multiple videos show Ray Epps repeatedly urging crowds of people in Washington, D.C. on January 5 and January 6, 2021, to go to the United States Capitol and breach the building,“ [U.S. Representative Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)] explained.
“Epps is the one person seen on video directing people towards the Capitol seconds before violence broke out, yet he has never been arrested or charged with any crime while more than 800 others have and countless more remained jailed.”
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday of last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) went into more detail, showing numerous video clips and citing Epps’ own admission, captured on video, “I’ll probably go to jail for this. I’ll probably be arrested.”
Obviously egging on the riot
Epps had good reason to worry. In his red Trump hat and camo gear, a head taller than those around him, Epps was the most conspicuous of all the January 6 protestors. In fact, he was the only one caught on camera urging others to “go in to the Capitol,” which he did repeatedly on January 5. So suspicious was his behavior that his fellow protestors chanted “no, no, no” and “Fed, Fed, Fed,” over one of his many exhortations.
One video from January 6 shows Epps telling a protester, “When we go in, leave this here. We don’t need to get shot.” The unseen “this” was likely a weapon, perhaps a gun. More damning still, another video captures Epps whispering into the ear of a protester seconds before the young man helped make the first breach of the Capitol Police’s inept defenses. …
Why is he protected by the deep state and the media?
The failure of the FBI to arrest the most conspicuous ringleader of the Capitol breach has naturally heightened suspicions that Epps — and likely others — were either federal agents or assets.
The “journalists” at the New York Times did not share those suspicions. In July 2022, … Times reporter Alan Feuer lamented the fate of this seeming MAGA extremist. “Epps has suffered enormously in the past 10 months,” wrote Feuer, “as right-wing media figures and Republican politicians have baselessly described him as a covert government agent who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol last year.”
“Baselessly?” The fact that the Times would shred its remaining credibility to defend this man suggests just how much Epps matters. …
Why it matters so much:
The media and the Democrats feel compelled to defend Ray Epps. To acknowledge that Epps was a government asset is to acknowledge that he and others like him infiltrated the January 6 protest and spurred it to violence. …
The vehemence of the Democrats’ opposition to Gosar’s resolution showed just how desperate they are to preserve their version of events at least through November.
No one on the committee matched Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) for the sheer venom of his attacks. …
To his credit, Massie kept his cool. He understood what was at stake. For more than a year Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have been pressing the FBI and Justice Department officials for information relevant to Epps, and they have been stonewalled at every turn.
“You are not going to memory hole this,” Massie protested. “There were cameras everywhere. You can create your own thesis for what happened, but if your thesis is in contradiction with things that hundreds of millions can observe and no one disputes, you have to resolve that.” …
If the Epps “conspiracy theory” blows up, every other accusation that the Left has dismissed as a conspiracy theory, including the “Big Lie” itself, will come under scrutiny.
What a shame that the history of defying Soviet authoritarianism is relevant to 21st century America:
