Ray Epps has been targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists who claim he was an FBI informant who provoked violence at the January 6 Capitol riots.
In a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, Epps said that after Trump mentioned him at a rally, threats forced him to sell his Arizona home and go into hiding. He said he and his wife are now living in an RV at an undisclosed location in the Rocky Mountains.
Epps also claims that Tucker Carlson is particularly obsessed with him, and is trying to destroy his life. Last month Epps served Carlson a cease-and-desist letter.
Ray Epps: I said some stupid things. My thought process, we surround the Capitol, we get all the people there. I mean, I had I had problems with the election. It was my duty as an American to peacefully protest, along with anybody else that wanted to.
While President Trump was still speaking at the Ellipse, Ray Epps walked toward the Capitol. He told us he wanted to be up front to help keep the peace. What happened next at Peace Circle where protesters first overran police is seen as a smoking gun. Epps pulled this agitated rioter aside and said something — conspiracists say he was giving marching orders, because seconds later, this happened… the first Capitol police officer goes down.
When asked what exactly he whispered to that protester, Epps said, “Dude, we’re not here for that. The police aren’t the enemy,” or somethin’ like that.
Epps claims that when he saw the violence, he wanted to become a peacemaker.
Tom Joscelyn is a researcher and author, one of the country’s top terrorism experts … tapped by the January 6th Committee to help write its final report.
Joscelyn says Epps was left out of the January 6th report due to lack of importance, that the facts show that if Epps were a covert plant, he was the worst covert plant of all time.
“They don’t want you to look at this mountain range of evidence. They want you to turn around and focus on this pebble on the ground named Ray Epps. They also don’t want you to look at what President Trump was saying and doing,” Joscelyn said.