Claim: Numerous Jan 6 provocatures were not indicted because they were collaborating with the US government.

Question

Revolver blows open a network of still-unindicted operators who appear to have been intimately involved in the initial Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

Answer 1

The central claim of this article (as well as a supporting, linked article found here: https://revolver.news/2021/12/damning-new-details-massive-web-unindicted-operators-january-6/ ) seems to be that a man named Ray Epps incited the January 6th riots as Federally protected "provocateur" agent in order to create blame for Trump supporters. This is misinformation; Ray Epps is not a Federal Agent, and all evidence points to him being a Trump supporter who believed that the election was stolen and wanted to join in on the protests, not thinking they would become dangerous riots.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/-trump-protester-ray-epps-told-jan-6-committee-crazy-conspiracy-theori-rcna63615 Here is an article where Ray Epps speaks about the conspiracy theorists; he admits to not having wanted to break the law, and to having been a Marine in the past. NBC news has reported extensively on the conspiracy regarding Ray Epps, and NBC is generally a reputable source, unlike the right-wing site Revolver.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/us/politics/ray-epps-sentenced-january-6.html This article reveals that the FBI had dismissed its own manhunt against Ray Epps because they had not seen significant evidence pointing to him having committed acts of significant violence or disruption during the riots, which supports his claims to having not wished to break any laws. The site Revolver seems to believe that this is a major point of evidence that the FBI were trying to cover up his involvement with a provocateur scheme, which is bad evidence and mostly circumstantial, as many conspiracy theories are.

Comments

This is a great fact check. I really appreciate you including the name of the person who the claim is about, Ray Epps. Including detailed information and three sources really solidifies your fact check. The way you formatted this was also very easy to read and I was able to get the information accurately and efficiently.

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This is an excellent fact-check. I appreciate the multiple sources and in-depth responses and analyses of each of them. You got the point across in a very precise and efficient way.

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I really appreciate the detail of this fact check. You really went into detail.

Answer 2

This story is very false. Ray Epps was never a double agent for the Federal government, as this article alleges. Firstly, this evidence does not put enough evidence forward that Ray Epps was one of the leaders of the January 6th invasion. There is no proof of him doing anything online to organize the protests. What it seems is that he was caught up in the rush of the mob mentality of those group of rioters, like many others that day. In this PBS article, Ray Epps says he was not the leader of the riots on January 6th. He is suing Fox News for falsely identifying him as one of the leaders of the riots. Claiming he was a federal agent who orchestrated the whole thing to make Trump Supporters look bad.

Additionally, in an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee in July, FBI Director Christopher Wray “denied having any knowledge of Epps being a ‘secret government agent.’”(Kunzelman). Furthermore, the website Revolver is known as a conservative media site by mediabiasfactcheck.com. They have spread many fake news stories to bolster the support for Trump. They are also not transparent, as you can not see the specific author of this website. Additionally, the website is not transparent in many other ways,, as it lists none of their supporters. Due the information being presented that makes Epps innocent of being a leader. I would charaterize this article as false.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/revolver-news/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ray-epps-center-of-a-jan-6-conspiracy-theory-is-charged-with-a-misdemeanor-over-capitol-insurrection