Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson recently scored a substantial legal victory in federal court regarding a lawsuit against him and the conservative news outlet for which he was a primetime host. For context, January 6 protestor Ray Epps Sr. sued Carlson and Fox News for defamation. However, a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that the coverage about Epps did not constitute the legal definition of “actual malice.”
In reporting on Epps, Carlson claimed the protestor was actually a federal agent disguised as a Trump supporter, suggesting that he provoked protestors on January 6 to charge and gain entry to the U.S. Capitol. Epps has denied these claims from Carlson damaged his reputation, incited threats against him, and caused financial ruin. However, Judge Jennifer L. Hall of the Delaware Federal District Court determined that Epps brought insufficient evidence to prove that Carlson or Fox News knowingly published false information in a reckless manner.
The news of the ruling in the defamation case sparked a response from conservatives on social media. The popular right-wing commentator George wrote, “BREAKING: A federal judge just ruled to dismiss the lawsuit filed by January 6th operative Ray Epps against Tucker Carlson & Fox for defamation. The judge dismissed it without comment. She might’ve felt there was validity to the claims that Epps was a Fed.”
He continued, “Anyone with a brain knows that January 6th was a deep state setup to distract people from the stolen 2020 election (the real insurrection). Every single convicted J6er must be pardoned, and all active cases must be dropped—none of this case-by-case basis nonsense. Innocent people went there and were ambushed by tyrannical Capitol Police and Fed infiltrators. FREE THEM ALL.”
One user in the comments section wrote, ” It’s a clear case of governmental entrapment! Pardon them all!!! If somebody committed an actual crime of violence, charge them for assault separately! Nobody who entered the Capital did so without being invited or coerced into doing so by a fed or somebody on the federal payroll (like Ray Epps). Like George said, it’s obvious to anybody with a brain.”
Another person added to the conversation, “Letting them out is not nearly enough. They should be compensated millions and the people that put them there (including judges) should get 20+ years prison. Participants in this travesty, a coup d’etat, should be convicted of Treason. Media, FBI/DOJ, politicians, all of them.”
In a previous segment about Epps while Tucker was still at Fox News, he said, “Under public pressure, the January 6 committee finally interviewed Ray Epps. Epps told the committee that he never entered the Capitol and therefore never committed a crime.” Carlson added, “His text messages showed that at 2:12 pm he boasted to his nephew that he had, quote, orchestrated the protests at the Capitol. He admitted he helped get people there, yet curiously, congressional Democrats consider rehabs an ally, not an insurrectionist.”
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Watch some of Carlson coverage about Epps’ involvement in J6:
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Tucker Carlson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98022712