WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) — The Congressional select committee examining last year’s deadly Capitol riot shot down a right-wing conspiracy theory that the FBI played a role in inciting the invasion on Tuesday.
The plot revolves around Ray Epps, an Arizona guy who claimed to have traveled to Washington for former President Donald Trump’s rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, which began just before a mob of his followers stormed the Capitol. Epps is seen in a widely circulated video inciting a mob to get into the Capitol.
Epps was allegedly on the FBI’s wanted list before being removed without being charged. According to CNBC, the decision sparked widespread conjecture about its significance among right-wing media sites.
Mr. Epps was interrogated by the select committee. In a statement, a spokesperson for the House panel investigating the riot said that Epps has informed them that neither he was working with nor employed by any law enforcement agency on January 5th or 6th or at any other time. He also mentioned that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other agency that enforces law in the country.
Several Republican legislators have also publicly questioned Epps’ role in the violence, allegedly to raise the notion of a government-led plot to incite or carry out the attack rather than Trump and his followers.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on domestic terror threats on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, expressed his suspicions about Epps. He said that according to public record , Epps has been charged with nothing and no one’s explained why an individual videoed urging masses to go to the Capitol. An individual whose conduct was so suspect the crowd believed he was a ‘fed,’ would just disappear from the list of people the FBI was looking at. Cruz remarked, pointing to a placard with a screenshot of an FBI website underneath the red text reading “FBI DROPS EPPS FROM LIST,” said Cruz before questioning two Justice Department officials on if federal agents “actively encouraged violent and criminal conduct on January 6.”
“Not to my knowledge, sir,” FBI national security official Jill Sanborn said.
