Ray Epps, a Trump supporter, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, but the judge rejected it on Wednesday, ending the year-long legal struggle.
In a July 2023 complaint, Epps, a Jan. 6 defendant, claimed that Fox News presented a “fantastical story” about Epps’ role as an undercover FBI agent who incited violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Trump backer was the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories and appeared in numerous Fox News segments, many of which were hosted by Tucker Carlson at the time.
In the initial complaint, Epps claimed that Fox News, “and particularly Mr. Carlson, commenced a years-long campaign spreading falsehoods about Epps.”
The complaint went on to say, “Those lies have destroyed Ray’s and Robyn’s lives,” alluding to Epps and his spouse.
However, on Wednesday, District Judge Jennifer L. Hall granted Fox News’ petition and dismissed the complaint due to “failure to state a claim.”
A request for comment from Fox News and Epps’s attorneys was not immediately answered. A request for comment from The Tucker Carlson Network was not immediately answered, and Carlson and Fox parted ties in April 2023.
Fox News made reference to more litigation against the network in statements to other media.
“Following the dismissals of theJankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” the network stated in messages sent to other sites.
Epps was placed on probation earlier this year after entering a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge related to the attack on January 6.
According to far-right conspiracy theories regarding Epps, the FBI sponsored a false flag operation on January 6 and a man shown on the FBI’s website was a government agent. In a Fox News Digital opinion piece, Carlson made reference to this by stating that “you d be talking to Ray Epps and various FBI informants” if law enforcement officials were interested in comprehending what happened on January 6, 2021.
The FBI said that Epps was not and has never been a bureau asset.
Fox News attorneys claimed in an August 2023 filing that Epps’ case “is a direct attack on the First Amendment.”
“This lawsuit attacks core First Amendment protected speech in which Fox opinion hosts asked questions, looked for answers, and provided commentary and opinions on widely reported and undisputed facts about Plaintiff s prominent role in one of the biggest public controversies in political history: the January 6 storming of the Capitol,” the complaint stated.
The Department of Justice reports that as of August 6, over 1,488 suspects have been charged in relation to January 6.
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