Ray Epps sentenced as Jan 6 conspiracy theories continue to dominate his life

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A person whose life was upended by right-wing conspiracy theories accusing him of being a federal agent assigned to entrap Donald Trump’s supporters has been sentenced to 1 12 months of probation for crimes linked to the January 6 assault.

Ray Epps acquired a sentence of 12 months of probation on 9 January after pleading responsible to a cost of disorderly or disruptive conduct for becoming a member of a mob in Washington DC and inspiring rioters to march to the US Capitol, the place the previous president’s loyalists stormed the halls of Congress to reject the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.

He was sentenced in the identical constructing the place Mr Trump was attending his personal listening to to defend his declare to “immunity” from prosecution for his makes an attempt to overturn the election, culminating within the mob fuelled by his election lies that he did not cease.

Epps and his spouse have spent the three years that adopted dodging an ongoing conspiracy idea amplified by Fox Information, members of Congress and Mr Trump himself alleging that he labored with federal regulation enforcement to impress rioters.

Prosecutors and federal regulation enforcement officers have repeatedly rejected these claims, and Epps is suing Fox Information and Tucker Carlson for defamation.

In a letter asking a choose for leniency earlier than Tuesday’s listening to, Epps – who supported the previous president in 2016 and 2020 and was a loyal Fox viewer on the time – wrote that he has since discovered “to not put my belief in politicians, Fox Information and another media and social media shops, solely to have them betray me and different Americans with election lies.”

“When the lies had been uncovered, they created a conspiracy to shift all the blame for the revolt on the FBI and myself as I turned the face of J6,” he wrote. “The blame for the revolt is just not on the FBI. It’s on those that had been on the Capitol and engaged in insurrectionist actions and people who misled Individuals like myself into believing the election had been stolen.”

Federal prosecutors initially requested a jail sentence of six months.

The Epps household and his attorneys sought a probationary sentence, pushing again in opposition to claims from prosecutors that he “engaged in felonious conduct” and pointing to the “overwhelming” impacts from conspiracy theories and far-right threats to his household.

“He was operating a household property that contained a special-events venue and different companies earlier than promoting all of it and going into hiding due to threats in opposition to him and his spouse on account of harmful misinformation,” his lawyer Ed Ungvarsky wrote on 7 January. “They stay in a trailer within the woods, away from their household, pals, and neighborhood.”

In a separate letter to the choose, his spouse Robyn Epps wrote that Fox Information was the couple’s “unique information channel.”

However after Fox and others unfold what she referred to as the “Ray Epps conspiracy idea,” the couple “endured dying threats and harassment that put our lives in danger,” she wrote.

Their telephones had been bombarded with threatening messages and “horrifying” voicemails. Folks drove by their houses waving weapons. Bullet casings had been discovered on their property. {Couples} posed as potential prospects for his or her wedding ceremony enterprise solely to nook them with questions on Epps. The threats, intruders and concern turned so overwhelming they finally bought their house and enterprise to enter hiding, Ms Epps wrote.

“We now have suffered underneath the assaults of Fox Information, politicians and social media and have discovered how conspiracy theories can develop so rapidly,” she wrote. “They did so as a result of the media and people who find themselves trusted lie, distort the reality and outright make up data for their very own profit or edification.”

One other letter from Epps relations stated he was “thrown underneath the bus by Fox, Trump and so many different information media for doing what he thought he ought to to help them.”

“For a time afterward, as somebody who believed in peaceable protest and noticed non-peaceful agitation, he questioned how so many Trump supporters may very well be so improper and thought there may also be left-wing individuals amidst the group stirring the pot,” in keeping with his lawyer.

“Mr Epps concluded way back that any such ideas had been improper,” Mr Ungvarsky wrote. “He educated himself.”

Regardless of testimony from Epps and dozens of others prices in reference to January 6, the previous president himself and his allies in Congress and in media proceed to falsely assert that “antifa” or authorities actors performed a job within the assault.

“By the best way, there was antifa, there was FBI, there have been plenty of different individuals there too main the cost,” Mr Trump stated at a rally in Iowa on 5 January. “You noticed the identical those who I did.”