Ray Epps, the Arizona man and Trump voter whom Fox News hosts repeatedly insinuated was an undercover federal agent provocateur at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, has sued the network and Tucker Carlson for defamation in Delaware Superior Court — the same venue where Dominion Voting Systems won a $787.5 million settlement for defamation earlier this year.
“Just as Fox had focused on voting machine companies when falsely claiming a rigged election, Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th,” reads the complaint, obtained by TheWrap. “It settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol.”
Neither Fox News nor Carlson immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday.
In early 2021, Fox repeatedly aired video of Epps imploring Trump supporters in Washington to go “into the Capitol” building the night before the Washington, D.C. rally. In one such clip, played multiple times on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and other shows, Trump supporters can be heard chanting “Fed! Fed! Fed!,” suggesting they thought at the time that Epps was, in fact, a government agent provocateur.
Eppas was also seen on the day of the attack, whispering to a man moments before he and other rioters breach a security perimeter. Carlson, who had a habit of phrasing accusations in the form of questions, asked many times: “Who is Ray Epps?” But Epps’ own lawsuit acknowledges that he was, in fact, a Trump supporter.
“Eventually, [Fox] turned on one of their own, telling a fantastical story in which Ray Epps — who was a Trump supporter that participated in the protests on January 6th — was an undercover FBI agent and was responsible for the mob that violently broke into the Capitol.”
Epps’ lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. He says he’s received death threats and had to leave his Arizona ranch with his wife for an RV they park in Utah to avoid the vitriol.
Fox News is still facing a $2.7 billion suit from voting machine company Smartmatic, and two separate Fox Corporation shareholder lawsuits. Fox also recently settled a lawsuit from one of Carlson’s former producers for $12 million, alleging a toxic work environment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
