Conservative icon Tucker Carlson recently received significant news regarding a lawsuit against him and his former employer, Fox News. January 6 participant Ray Epps Sr. previously sued Carlson and the outlet for defamation, but a federal judge dismissed the case, determining that the primetime host did not meet the legal definition of “actual malice” in his commentary about Epps.
As background, Tucker claimed that Epps was actually a federal agent disguised as a Trump supporter who provoked protestors on January 6 to storm the U.S. Capitol. According to Epps, these claims from Carlson tainted his reputation, led to threatening behavior perpetrated against him, and caused financial hardship. However, Judge Jennifer L. Hall of the Delaware Federal District Court ruled that Epps had insufficient evidence to prove that Carlson or Fox News knowingly published false information in a reckless manner.
In several segments during his prior tenure at Fox News, Tucker portrayed Epps as an individual who “helped stage-manage the insurrection.” In one segment about Epps, Carlson 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.”
Citing supposed evidence about Epps’ involvement, the former Fox News host said, “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.”
Carlson further stated, “Tonight, we can tell you that at the very least, rehabs lied in his sworn testimony to the January 6 committee, Epps testified that when he sent the text messages to his nephew, he had already left the Capitol grounds to return to his hotel room. That is not true. The surveillance footage we found shows that, in fact, Ray Epps remained at the capitol for at least another half an hour. You’re seeing that on your screen now. What was Epps doing that we can’t say, but we do know that he lied to investigators. The January 6 committee likely knew this too. Democrats had access to the same tape, yet they defended radios. No honest investigation would do that. But the point of the January 6 committee was never to investigate anything.”
Numerous conservatives reacted to the positive news for Carlson. The popular right-wing X influencer 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.” He added, “The judge dismissed it without comment. She might’ve felt there was validity to the claims that Epps was a Fed.”
George noted, “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.”
Watch Carlsons’ segment below:
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