The Department of Justice is recommended a six-month jail sentence for Ray Epps, a January 6 defendant captured on video urging protesters to storm the Capitol.
Epps ultimately avoided prison time and received a $500 fine.
Despite Epps’ documented felony infractions during the Capitol Riots, the DOJ prosecutor cited mitigating factors such as Epps’ cooperation with the FBI and Congress, voluntary interviews, and efforts to deescalate conflict.
This has led to accusations of selective prosecution and favorable treatment, especially as Epps had appeared on the FBI’s Most Wanted list and gained notoriety for avoiding legal consequences. (Trending: Fauci’s Ex-Boss Admits The Truth About COVID)
Ray Epps, who is accused of being an FBI informant, avoided prison time and incurred a $500 fine.
The FBI also removed him from their watch list. pic.twitter.com/36P93W8Sfs
— AnalyzingAmerica (@AnalyzAmerica) January 10, 2024
“For the reasons set forth herein, the government requests that this Court sentence Defendant James Ray Epps, Sr. to six months’ incarceration, which is the high end of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range of zero to six months. The government also requests that this Court impose, consistent with the plea agreement in this case, $500 in restitution, as well as one year of supervised release,” wrote the DOJ.
“Defendant James Ray Epps, Sr. (‘Epps’)—a 62 year-old former Marine, roofer, handyman, farmer, and venue operator, now retired—participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol, a violent attack that forced an interruption of Congress’s certification [read: election challenges] of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election [without firearms and without killing anyone], injured more than one hundred police officers [fewer than the BLM riots the previous summer at the White House], and resulted in more than 2.9 million dollars in losses [while the BLM riots caused billions in damages],” read the DOJ’s memo.
Matthew Graves, the Department of Justice’s prosecutor, said, “Epps pleaded guilty via plea agreement, pre-indictment, to Disorderly or Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1752(a)(2).”
“The government’s recommended sentence is supported by Epps’ (1) efforts, both on the evening of January 5 and the day of January 6, to inspire and gather a crowd to storm the Capitol to protest the certification of the election; (2) presence among the vanguard of rioters that overwhelmed police at three key breach points, which opened the floodgates to a mob that became thousands strong; (3) presence and general assistance with pushing a large metal-framed sign into a group of police officers holding a defensive line; and (4) participation in a rugby scrum-like group effort to push past the same line of police officers,” he continued.
“The Court must also consider that Epps’ conduct on January 6, like the conduct of scores of other defendants, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm police, breach the Capitol, and disrupt the proceedings,” added the prosecutor.
The last person to whisper something to Ryan Samsel, one of the first J6ers to breach exterior police lines that day, was Ray Epps.
Epps is a free man–Ryan Samsel has spent 422 days in solitary confinement as this treacherous, abusive DOJ adds new indictments and co-defendants: pic.twitter.com/lnTRQJExLI
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) March 30, 2022
“This is a unique case in the context of January 6 defendants,” said Graves.
“Although Epps engaged in felonious conduct during the riot on January 6, his case includes a variety of distinctive and compelling mitigating factors, which led the government to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and offer Epps a pre-indictment misdemeanor plea resolution. Specifically, Epps: (1) turned himself in to the FBI two days after the riot, on January 8, 2021, immediately after becoming aware the FBI was seeking to identify him; (2) cooperated with both the FBI and Congress, participating in multiple lengthy voluntary interviews; and (3) engaged in at least five efforts on January 6 to deescalate conflict and avoid violence between rioters and police officers. He has also expressed what appears to be sincere remorse, although he continues to speciously blame members of Antifa secretly posing as Trump supporters for the violence and property damage that occurred at the Capitol on January 6. Finally, Epps has been the target of a false and widespread conspiracy theory that he was an undercover government agent on January 6,” explained Graves.
Speculation about Epps’ ties to the federal government and his role in instigating the riots has also arisen.
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