Revolver does it again. Great investigative reporting here.
Six weeks ago, Revolver News published a blockbuster investigative report on Ray Epps — a man who, more than any other individual, appears to be the key unlocking the question of active federal involvement in the so-called “Capitol Siege” of January 6th.
Out of all of the thousands of January 6’s protesters, and the thousands of hours of publicly available footage from that fateful day, Ray Epps has turned out to be perhaps the only person nailed dead to rights confessing on camera to plotting a pre-planned attack on the Capitol. On both January 5 and January 6, Epps announced multiple times, at multiple locations, his upcoming plot to breach the US Capitol. He then spent hours attempting to recruit hundreds of others to join him. On top of it all, Epps was seen leading key people and managing key aspects of the initial breach of the Capitol grounds himself.
Watch:
It would be one thing if Epps’s repeated calls on January 5 to “go into the Capitol” had simply amounted to bluster. But Epps followed through on his stated mission to shepherd others inside. In clips 4-6 of the above compilation, we see Epps actively orchestrate elements of the very first breach of the Capitol barricades at 12:50 p.m, while Trump still had 20 minutes left in his rally speech.
It is noteworthy that this Ray Epps breach occurs just one minute after Capitol Police began responding to reports of two “pipe bombs” located at DNC and GOP headquarters, respectively. Rather conveniently, the already-handicapped Capitol Police thus had still-fewer resources with which to respond to the barricade breach in question.
While the “pipe bombs” turned out to be a dud, the Ray Epps breach proved fateful. Today, the official stories told by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the US Justice Department all depict the apparent Ray Epps-orchestrated 12:50 p.m. initial breach of metal barricades as the “Big Bang” event of January 6.
In large part, this description is hardly an exaggeration. Indeed, it was the 12:50 p.m. breach of the Capitol grounds, in conjunction with a handful of suspicious individuals ripping down fencing and signage, that set in motion the conditions allowing for 1/6 to turn from a rally into a riot.
In this report, we will blow open this network of still-unindicted key operators who appear to have been at work either with or around Ray Epps during the initial Capitol grounds breach. You, dear reader, will be scandalized — though perhaps unsurprised — to learn that none of the actors covered in this report have received attention in the mainstream press, despite their active and indispensable roles in the events of 1/6.
As we explained in detail in our previous report, the FBI originally put Ray Epps’s face on its Capitol Violence “Most Wanted List” on January 8, 2021, just two days after 1/6. They offered a cash reward for information leading to his arrest. In fact, rank-and-file FBI agents initially deemed Epps’s role as an apparent riot organizer so important that they named him Suspect #16—one of the first 20 high-profile FBI targets in a database now packed with more than 500 suspects.
Then, six months later on June 30, 2021, both Revolver News and The New York Times published inconvenient stories that encouraged a more aggressive interrogation of the “Ray Epps third rail,” leading reasonable people to wonder why this publicly identified man on the Most Wanted List still had no charges filed against him.
The FBI responded to these important media stories the very next day. But their response was to quietly purge all online Ray Epps files from their website, then switch to a posture of “What? Who? Ray Epps? Never heard of him.”
Agents of the FBI Field Office in Phoenix (where Epps lives) have gone so far as to explicitly deny knowledge that Ray Epps even exists. Instead of pursuing Epps, FBI agents have instead pursued journalists who had the temerity to ask Epps in person if he was a government operative. “I understand that, but I can’t say anything,” is all Epps would tell them.
Here’s a quick visual synopsis of this timeline:
The sham Congressional January 6 Commission seems to be going along with the charade of Ray Epps denialism. For all of its recent gesticulations about Mark Meadows’s benign text messages, the Commission has yet to express even a basic interest in Ray Epps or his communications leading up to and on January 6.
But the specter of Ray Epps, and the ominous questions his immunity raises, loom too large to be memory-holed by poorly coordinated efforts of government denial. In light of the above, it is both amusing and symbolically appropriate that despite the FBI’s attempt to purge Epps’s face from its “Wanted” database (and public denials of his existence from authorized agents), the FBI DC Field Office still features Ray Epps as a “Wanted” man in its current pinned Twitter image (look closely and you’ll find it).
If Epps turns out to have been some kind of government operative, which at present is the only clean and simple explanation for his immunity, it is game over for the official “MAGA insurrection” narrative of 1/6. Epps was the day’s loudest riot recruiter, and its apparent leader of the very first breach of Capitol grounds. If Ray Epps is a Fed, the “Insurrection” becomes the “Fedsurrection” in one fell swoop.
These are the stakes at play in unraveling the Ray Epps enigma.
But it is imperative to note that if Epps was just a cog in a much larger federal operation, he would not have been deployed alone. Historically speaking, when Feds have orchestrated fake mobs of fake protesters, or contrived fake conspiratorial plots, the Feds’ own assets have commonly comprised between 16% to 25% of the plot’s participants, at least in its key respects. Indeed, the FBI once flew in 1,600 rowdy spooks to infiltrate a single convention with just 10,000 protesters.
In recent times, attacks blamed on right-wing militias have blown past the 16% mark on the Fed Saturation Index and have been clocking in at a whopping 25-50%. As Revolver has previously noted:
Students of FBI history should quickly absorb the lesson that infiltrating Feds are like roaches: whenever you spot one, it is guaranteed there are dozens of others nearby. Feds simply never, ever, operate alone. This is how you end up with at least 12 FBI informants in a tiny “right-wing” Michigan militia plot from October 2020 (that’s just informants, not even agents), 15 informants in the “right-wing” 2016 Malheur plot, dozens in the 2014 Bundy Ranch affair — including six FBI undercover agents posing as fake documentarians shooting a fake documentary — and the list goes on.
So if Ray Epps was instructed by the government to play his part in various recruiting, breaching and crowd control efforts that day, we would expect many other informants to be set up around him.
To test this hypothesis, Revolver spent the past six weeks comprehensively mapping Ray Epps’s network of interactions on January 6, and profiling the key people around him who complemented his efforts. We did a deep dive into other key figures involved in the initial breach of the Capitol grounds, as well as figures who played an instrumental role in fence removal and crowd control. In short, we investigated key players whose early actions on 1/6 turned the rally into a riot.
The bad news for Fedsurrection Deniers is the results are in, and they look even worse for the FBI than Revolver’s already low expectations. For brevity, we profile five of the most egregious cases in this report, and tell the story of how they crossed paths and interacted with, and in some cases coordinated with Ray Epps to make 1/6 possible. Some of these cases are so wild as to constitute Epps-sized scandals unto themselves.
But first, it important to note that Feds at the mere informant level are seldom told by their handlers of the presence of other government informants around them. From each individual informant’s perspective, the agitators around them would look as lawless to them as they did to the crowd.
This exact strange situation played out in the climax of the Whitmer Kidnapping Plot. The car that prosecutors say “cased” the Governor’s house had five passengers—two homeless patsies, and three secret Feds. But only the agent-level Fed in the car had total operational awareness. Each of the two informants in the car probably thought the other was a legitimate insurrectionist.
So it is not necessary for all or any of the individuals covered in this report to know each other or to have affirmatively “worked together” to have formed a “team” through collective effort. A simple text message from a federal handler to “Be at the Peace Monument at 12:45 p.m. and flush out the crazies” would be all that’s needed for a large ring of provocateurs to simultaneously be in the same place, at the same time, contributing to the same breach.
So now, without further ado, we will tell the true, documented story of 1/6 that the Regime doesn’t want you to hear, involving key unindicted figures the Regime would prefer that you never heard of.
If there were such a thing as an unbiased January 6 Commission that sought to piece together the accurate timeline and narrative of events on 1/6, the following study would be the sort of thing it would publish.
Revolver makes no facial allegation about any of the individuals below. However, some very serious, shocking and time-sensitive questions are raised by this report. To that extent, our accusations and demands are aimed squarely at the US Justice Department.
FBI Director Chris Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have an awful lot of explaining to do.
Continue reading here: The Booby Trap that Turned a Rally into a Riot
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4 Responses
Who will be surprised when Ray Epps is found playing pinochle with Jimmy Hoffa?
We’ve seen several attempts at rewriting the events of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In one version, the breach resembled “an ordinary tourist visit.” In another, left-wing anti-fascists were to blame.
Now comes the latest deflection, one that focuses on the federal government, and includes speculative claims that assert that the FBI is responsible for the day’s events.
“Meet Ray Epps: The Fed-Protected Provocateur Who Appears To Have Led The Very First 1/6 Attack On The U.S. Capitol,” reads the Oct. 25 headline of a story on Revolver News, a right-leaning website run by a former Trump White House speechwriter.
Epps, whose participation in the events at the Capitol became known shortly after Jan. 6, was seen in videos from Jan. 5 and 6 urging others to enter the Capitol “peacefully.” Revolver’s article attempts to build a case that Epps’ comments, his association with unindicted Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, and the fact he wasn’t arrested prove that Epps is an FBI informant and that the federal government incited the riot.
The conclusion relies largely on speculation. It does not confirm Epps to be an FBI informant.
Revolver, run by Darren Beattie, a Trump speechwriter who was fired after he appeared on a panel with a white nationalist, has floated this unproven narrative before. Fox News host Tucker Carlson amplified the claim in his conspiratorial documentary series that attempted to recast the events of Jan. 6 and featured Beattie as a source.
The FBI declined to comment and referred us to the Justice Department’s Capitol Breach webpage. We reached out to Epps and Revolver for comment but did not hear back.
Epps, 60, lives in Queen Creek, Ariz., where he owns Rocking R Farms and the Knotty Barn, a wedding and event venue, records show.
In 2011, Epps served as president of Arizona Oath Keepers, the largest chapter of the anti-government militia group. The chapter has since distanced itself from the national organization. We could not confirm whether Epps was still affiliated with the militia on Jan. 6.
But Revolver claims that Epps’ connection to the Oath Keepers, whose members face some of the most serious charges in the Capitol breach, is suspicious — namely, his association with the organization’s leader Stewart Rhodes, who has also not been arrested for his actions related to Jan. 6.
In national message boards, Rhodes told his members to descend on D.C. to “defend” Trump. Rhodes was on Capitol grounds during the insurrection, prosecutors said, and communicated frequently with several Oath Keepers who stormed the building. But there’s no indication that he entered the Capitol himself.
Federal agents confronted Rhodes outside a Texas hotel in May, seizing his cellphone with a warrant. Against the advice of his attorney, Rhodes agreed to be questioned about his and his militia’s role in the riot and spent hours doing so.
It was then that Rhodes said he expressed frustration with some of his members and told investigators that Oath Keepers who breached the building “went off mission” and didn’t get any instructions from him.
After Jan. 6, videos emerged showing some of Epps’ actions in Washington. During an Oct. 21 House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the Department of Justice, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., showed clips of Epps repeatedly encouraging protesters on the streets of Washington to “go into the Capitol.” Among the scenes he showed at the 5:03:00 minute mark of the hearing:
Epps, in a Jan. 5 gathering on a street, says, “In fact, tomorrow, I don’t even want to say it because I will probably be arrested. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol.” “Let’s go!” one person replies.
In another street gathering, also on Jan. 5, Epps says, “I’m going to put it out there. I’m probably going to go to jail for it, OK? Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol! Into the Capitol!” “What?! No!” someone yells. “Peacefully!” Epps adds. Then, some in the crowd start to chant “Fed! Fed! Fed!”
In footage from Jan. 6, Epps is seen yelling into a crowd, “OK, folks, spread the word! As soon as the president is done speaking, we go to the Capitol. The Capitol is this direction.”
Also on Jan. 6, Epps is seen approaching police barricades. The video doesn’t show Epps participating in any of the violence. But he puts his hands on the shoulders of a man in a red “Make America Great Again” ballcap and then cups his hands to speak into the man’s ear moments before the protesters topple the barricades and tussle with police. The man, Ryan Samsel, now faces charges in connection with his actions that day, including impeding a law enforcement officer and obstructing an official proceeding.
Massie suggested that Epps may work for the FBI and he asked Attorney General Merrick Garland whether the government sent agents to “agitate” protesters into entering the Capitol. Garland responded that the Justice Department doesn’t comment on pending investigations.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic shortly after the riot, Epps acknowledged that he had traveled to Washington for former President Donald Trump’s rally.
When the newspaper asked what he meant in videos by “go into the Capitol,” he said, “The only thing that meant is we would go in the doors like everyone else. It was totally, totally wrong the way they went in.”
Epps’ image was at one point included on the FBI Capitol Violence most wanted list, a website that seeks the public’s help in identifying people involved in the riot. Because the FBI removed the image from the website sometime in July, Revolver claims this indicates that the government is attempting to erase Epps’ name from the riot.
But it could also merely confirm that the FBI is no longer seeking help in locating him. Other explanations for its removal include the possibility that Epps may have already been interviewed by investigators.
“Ray Epps is a free man. He has never been arrested or charged,” the Revolver story also states. “Nearly 10 months after January 6, the FBI and Justice Department still refuse to comment on whether Epps has ever been served a search warrant.”
Epps never appears to have entered the Capitol or engaged in violence as many of the more than 600 others facing charges did. The investigation is ongoing.
I’m sticking with the common sense explanation. This man agitated for a fight because (like the thousands of other Trump followers who traveled down to DC) he wanted one, but once it actually happened it seems he knew what he was good for him and stayed out. I see his not being charged as evidence that we live in a society governed by laws rather than a police state. Which is basically the claim of this completely foolish conspiracy theory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/us/politics/jan-6-conspiracy-theory-ray-epps.html
Ah the irony: the conspiracy theorists are at it again! On the one hand, “Doesn’t Drink Orange Koolaid” would like us to believe in the fantasy of an armed “insurrection” and “attempted coup” all planned meticulously by the dastardly ‘literal-Hitler’ Trump who, paradoxically, is also a “Russian Asset” (as we all ought to know). On the other hand, he informs us that Ray Epps who “agitated for a fight” suddenly came to his senses because “he knew what he was good for him and stayed out”. Are we honestly expected to believe this nonsense?
Given the extreme seriousness of the insurrection/coup allegations, it is logical for the state to insist that every last one of the “insurrectionists” face the full force of the law. And that is what the federal government is attempting to do, though not very successfully thus far. Because there is no evidence of a conspiracy, nor dangerous weapons nor even much violent behaviour. But there is some. As I pointed out in a comment to another recent Iconoclast article (https://www.newenglishreview.org/the-voters-are-not-distracted/), there is damning video evidence of Ray Epps which shows him repeatedly provoking people to “go into the capitol”. He was, without doubt, one of the most aggressive of all the protesters. Which is why regular FBI investigators placed Epps high up on their most wanted list for SIX months.
For ordinary members of the public the common sense question to ask, then, is this:
Why does the FBI not just tell the public the truth about Ray Epps? In other words inform us:
– Why Epps was suddenly and silently removed from their Jan 6 most wanted list after 6 long months?
– Why no reasons were given for his removal at the time?
– Whether Epps has any relationship, formal or otherwise, with the FBI?
– Why no charges are being pressed against Epps when other “insurrectionists” with far less evidence against them have been held in solitary confinement for long periods and generally treated appallingly?
– Whether Epps belonged to another covert government team, and if so, was it in his brief to incite protesters to enter the capitol & riot?
– Why other members of Epp’s “group” (i.e. team) have not been indicted?
The only way to earn trust is by presenting ALL the facts, and letting we, the public, make up our own minds. It’s the essence of any democracy under the rule of law. Regularly omitting and/or ignoring facts is simply a form of lying. Loss of trust is why, as I also pointed out in the article quoted above, the corporate mainstream media in the US is trusted by so very few people (29% at last count) today. So DDOK can ramble and attempt to deflect perfectly reasonable questions about the events of Jan with ridiculous bluster. But until we get truthful answers to the questions above it is difficult to believe anything other than that Ray Epps was indeed a government operative. And as the the author of this article points out, if that’s the case, then the whole “MAGA insurrection” narrative of 1/6 is not worth the paper it’s written on!