Have you followed the saga of Ray Epps in the context of the January 6 debacle? Epps was the mysterious figure caught in numerous videos from that day in his leadership of supposed “MAGA Insurrectionists.”
Epps remains something of an enigma. Theories still abound as to who he is and the role he played that day.
Our Investigative Journalist Steve Baker had numerous video of Epps that day, much of which made network headline stories around the world. Steve continues to focus on elements of that day, doing his best to get “facts” — not the Pelosi, NY Times, Washington Post, or the Select January 6 Committee’s “facts.” REAL facts.
Steve today agreed to share his latest diatribe of Ray Epps.
(By the way, Steve will be live at “TNN Live!” today, Tuesday, January 3rd with me at 10AM Central time)
Here’s Steve!
“Facts” Of Jan. 6 With Steve Baker
Well, darn it! That explains everything. Ray Epps, subject of the #1 January 6 conspiracy theory by the right-wing MAGA crowd — and the only Trump-supporting, former Oath Keeper, Capitol barricade-breacher, caught on tape calling protestors to “Go INTO the Capitol,” that the left seems determined to excuse of all-the-things — told the House Select Committee that he believed the Capitol was open to the public on January 6th. The Committee apparently deemed that a reasonable explanation for his behavior. Case closed.
Seriously. (In my best Uncle Joe impression: “I’m not joking.”)
How’d you spend your first day of 2023? Me? I decided to start reading through some of those last-minute transcript dumps from the un-Select Committee. Seems we may see transcripts of close to 100-ish of the 1,200-ish interviews they conducted since Nancy Pelosi famously said she wanted to, “Establish and preserve the narrative of January 6.” Well, you can hardly “establish” the correct narrative if you don’t get Ray Epps accurately on record. The transcript released is from his second interview, conducted on January 21, 2022 — one year and a couple weeks after the Big Day.
(As an aside, the Committee seems content to allow the remainder of those transcripts get caught up in a National Archives trap that could keep them sealed from public review for anywhere from 20 to 50 years.)
While this interview of Epps was not a criminal proceeding or trial — and not “under oath” — it did come with a warning:
[Redacted questioner]: I want to remind vou that it is unlawful to deliberately provide false information to Congress. For this interview, providing false information could result in criminal penalties for perjury and/or false statements. Do you understand that, Mr. Epps?
Mr. Epps: Yes.
The singular most obvious characteristic of the entire interview, were the kid glovesused on Epps. It was as if he was on the witness stand at a trial, testifying under direct examination, and his own attorney asked nothing but the kind of leading questions which allowed him and directed him to provide the “correct” answers . . . without any objection from the opposition counsel. One wouldn’t expect such a light-handed treatment by this committee of an individual who claims to not only be an election-denying Trump supporter, a confessed former Oath Keeper, and who was at the tip of the spear of the first two line breaches on the Capitol’s west side. (Both, long before Trump had finished his speech at The Ellipse.) Never mind his much publicized and videoed “incitement” rhetoric on the evening of January 5th and the morning of January 6.
Those softball and leading questions manifest themselves repeatedly . . . for 97 pages. But I didn’t finish the transcript yesterday. I was stopped in my tracks on Page 35 — gobsmacked, as it were — during an exchange initiated by Rep. Adam Kinzinger in the midst of a line of questions about Epps’ alleged assumption that the Capitol Building would be open to the public on January 6, 2021. Here it is, verbatim:
Mr. Kinzinger: Just on that real quick, did you – had you heard any news or anything about the Capitol being closed for COVID restrictions, or did you – were you under the impression that, again, it was open, you could go visit, all that stuff?
Transcripts from hearings conducted by the January 6 committee released last Thursday show that Ray Epps told his nephew Dalin Epps that as far as January 6 was concerned, “I was in the front with a few others. I also orchestrated it.” The deposition took place on Jan. 21, 2022, but it has only now been released. It further proves the collusion between the committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to steal an election and ensure it stays stolen.
Ray Epps was caught on video telling protesters, “We need to go into the Capitol.” Nearby protesters refused, calling him a Fed. But he continued trying to convince people to enter the Capitol. Many of those people, who simply entered the building, and many who did not, have been arrested and kept in prison in terrible conditions. But Epps continues to walk free, even after his clumsy testimony before the January 6 committee:
At that point, I didn’t know that they were breaking into the Capitol. I didn’t [know] windows had been broken. I didn’t know anybody was in the Capitol. I answered him, that means I was on—at 2:12, I was on my way back to the hotel room.
Here are the facts:
- The fbi has refused to deny that it had agents planted in the crowd with January 6 protesters.
- Epps was caught on camera inciting a riot, and he was accused of being a Fed.
- The left has repeatedly protected and shielded him from any kind of prosecution, while people who have done far less languish in prison to this very day.
Evidence of election fraud is being revealed. Government institutions at the very highest levels worked to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump. They manufactured the chaos on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent a legal inquest into that theft. But the truth is being exposed more and more, just as the Bible says it would.
Mr. Epps: I was under the impression that it was open.
Mr. Kinzinger: Thank you.
Mr. Epps: I didn’t think about it much. I mean, your perspective is your reality. Arizona, we’re pretty – – we don’t worry about COVID too much. I mean, I – –
Mr. Kinzinger: Yeah, understood.
Mr. Epps: I would expect it to be open. That’s my answer.
Mr. Kinzinger: I think that, you know, given any other year, it would have been open. I think that’s important to note. So thank you.
I couldn’t read any further. First, Kinzinger’s leading question: “. . . were you under the impression that, again, it was open, you could go visit, all that stuff?”
Then, Kinzinger’s close made my blood boil: “I think that, you know, given any other year, it would have been open. I think that’s important to note. So thank you.”
Instantly, my mind leapt to the fact . . . there are hundreds — of the thousands who arrived at the Capitol grounds AFTER barricades and AREA CLOSED signs had been removed, and AFTER police had retreated from sight — who have been and are continuing to be prosecuted for “entering and remaining in a restricted area.” Yet, Kinzinger volunteered that it is “important to note” Epps’ own “perspective” that the Capitol would be open to the public.
Whatever Mr Epps’ impression, perspective, or understanding was before he arrived at that first west side Capitol grounds barricade, he clearly saw those barricades guarded by Capitol Police officers with AREA CLOSED signs affixed. In the very moment those barricades were violently pushed over — shoving USCP Officer Caroline Edwards down and knocking her unconscious when her head hit the concrete steps — Epps broke out in a run, making no attempt to assist Officer Edwards. He immediately made his way to the next police line, where Capitol CCTV cameras captured the collapse of that police line, again, at the very spot where Epps was located.
Epps was then two-for-two — frontline — in the exact location of the first two breaches into police-guarded restricted space. The thousands who later followed, had no knowledge those initial barricades and police lines even existed, but the government has charged, arrested, and prosecuted hundreds of those — even though they neither participated in, or so much as witnessed the violent breaches.
Ray Epps? Nope. Nothing. He has been given a pass.
As I’ve previously written, on several occasions, “Right-wing, MAGA extremists didn’t create the Epps conspiracy theory. The government did.” Whether or not he was acting as a paid provocateur — employed by the FBI, Antifa, or some militant militia — the government has chosen to give Epps a “Get Out of Jail Free” card, while throwing the book at those far more innocent. Innocent by means of actual ignornace of location, and who particpated in no violence, provocation, or incitement in the events of January 6.
Epps openly called for protestors to enter the Capitol Building. By contrast, in nine weeks of testimony at the the Oath Keepers’ first trial, the government never presented a single shred of evidence that Stewart Rhodes — the Oath Keepers leader and founder — ever called for his members to enter the Capitol. Every single one of the government’s own witnesses — FBI agents and former Oath Keepers, who’d already taken plea deals on their charges — testified that Rhodes never gave those orders. (The government finally switched strategies during their case, claiming it was an “implied” seditious conspiracy.)
Speaking of conspiracy theories, Mr. Kinzinger wasn’t done. On Page 93 of Epps’ interview transcript, the following exchange took place:
Mr. Kinzinger: May I ask real quick, what about, what was the timing? Around what month did this start to accelerate? | mean, I hadn’t heard about you personally, myself, until probably about November. From your position, when did – – when did this kind of – – I’ll call it a conspiracy, because that’s what it is – – start to creep up?
Mr. Epps: Revolver, I guess, come out with this conspiracy. They started putting this thing together, and I don’t think Revolver was anybody – – this is my own personal belief. I’m not sure if this is right — until politicians basically put them out there. I mean, then everybody believed it. They believed their politicians, and it just blew up.
Mr. Kinzinger: And just as a quick aside, there’s a conspiracy that I created ISIS. So, I didn’t, but I’ve seen it on the internet, and I understand how this stuff spreads, and the truth doesn’t spread as quickly. So, thanks. That’s it.
There you have it. “That’s it,” for Ray Epps. But the Department of Justice requested, and the recently passed $1.7 trillion Omnibus Bill contains, an additional allocation of over $200 million to their annual budget, necessary in allowing them to prosecute at least 2,000 others of those innocent protestors who never saw the AREA CLOSED signs, who never actively breached police lines — as did Mr. Epps — who will face FBI SWAT raids with red laser dots aimed on their chests at 6 o’clock in the morning, who will be charged with federal crimes, lose their jobs, have their lives ruined, and likely also spend prison time if they dared utter any provocative language . . . like . . . “We have to go into the Capitol.”
Most of those will also have assumed the Capitol Building was open to the public on January 6. Right, Mr. “Former Congressman” Kinzinger?
